Dan's Supermarket on State Street

Dan’s Supermarket is the area’s dominant grocer, with four locations in Bismarck-Mandan; and two in Dickinson. Dan’s has its roots back to 1949, when Roy Rockstad & Eugene “Bus” Leary purchased the local Piggly Wiggly and converted it to Bismarck Supervalu, the precursor to Dan’s Supervalu, which eventually became Dan’s Supermarket.

Bismarck’s Piggly Wiggly had been opened by W.W. Oliver in 1939. Supervalu purchased the Bismarck Piggly Wiggly in 1949, in addition to locations in Dickinson and Mandan, and then resold it to Rockstad and Leary. The nearby Mandan location was sold to Emily Moos and William Joersz, and also retained the Supervalu name (Bill’s Supervalu).

Rockstad and Leary had been coworkers at National Tea Store, where Rockstad was market manager and Leary the store’s general manager. Prior to purchasing Bismarck’s Piggly Wiggly, Leary had operated his own grocery store, Leary Grocery, for 3 months, upon selling the store. Rockstad and Leary opened a second location at Arrowhead Shopping Plaza in 1953. The new location would be called “Dan’s” Supervalu. The original Dan’s location still remains housed inside Arrowhead Plaza, and is the oldest remaining grocery store in Bismarck. The south Dan’s location opened in 1970, next to Kirkwood Plaza, followed by their north location in 1975, both of which have since been replaced by larger stores.

Interestingly, Dan’s is not named after a real person. It was created as a marketing gimmick to coincide with the “Dan the Savings Man” campaign.

External Link:
www.dansupermarket.com

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