Local man has 40 years in the grocery business

Ken Johnston
editorial@RainyRiverRecord.com

In his 40 years of the grocery business, Arbor Vitae native, Gord Olson has seen it all; from the wholesale selling of product to his current job as meat cutter at Susan’s Corner Store in Rainy River.
Olson said his first grocery job was at Harley’s Supermarket in Dryden. He said it just seemed to suit him and from there he went to Scott National Company where he spent 15 years in the wholesale end of the business. He started at the bottom there and worked his way right into management in Thompson, Manitoba.
While it was a good job, home was never far from his mind and when he travelled home for a holiday and saw that the Bergland grocery store was up for sale, he and wife Anita decided to go for it. In October of 1977 they purchased the store from the Dalseg family and ran it as Olson’s Foodtown for 12 years. They enjoyed working for themselves, but eventually the really long hours began to catch up with them and they decided it was time for a change to something a little more manageable.
They sold the store and started their own business, G. & A. Custom Meat Cutting. Gord also started working in Sioux Narrows in the summer time and then focused on G. & A. in the fall and winter months. After five summers in Sioux Narrows, Gord was approached by Steve Hawkins of Beaver Mills Market to cut meat for the new store he was building. Gord spent 4.5 years there and at first tried to do G. & A. on the side, but that soon became too much for him as they would process about 150 deer, 60-70 moose and 60-70 beef, plus work full time.
Then last year he took a job at Safeway in Fort Frances filling in for a cutter that was off work for several months. In the mean time Susan Carpenter, new owner of Susan’s Grocery Store (formerly Aikenhead’s Grocery) approached him to work for her. Olson said that he couldn’t leave Safeway high and dry and had to stick it out with them until December. At that time he started working for Susan’s and said that he sees good potential for the store.
Susan has spent a great deal of time and money renovating the store and in particular the meat cutting area. New flooring and another walk-in cooler have been added to the department.
Olson said that things are going quite good, noting that he is getting to know the customers that come in on a regular basis. He has also been adding different items to the counter, noting that they now provide specialty meat packs, priced to order. He is also packaging meat in smaller portions for single people and seniors.
He noted that they will beat any everyday price of Safeway and offer what the people want. “I would never sell anything I wouldn’t buy myself,” said Olson.
Carpenter said that she feels very good about having Olson on staff, admitting that she really did not have the background to cut meat. “I let him do the ordering and I pay the bills. It is working out really well.”
As word spreads that Olson is now at Susan’s, they are finding a lot of people are coming in to buy meat from the business that otherwise would have gone elsewhere to get their product. Both Olson and Carpenter expect that trend to continue and hope that the public offers them suggestions about what they would like to see in the meat department.