The Life Blood of Rural Montana Towns
Small Town Grocery Stores
Written by Cyd Hoefle
Photography by Stu Hoefle
Montana is known for its wide-open spaces. There are miles and miles of two-lane highways between sparsely populated communities. In fact, according to the 2020 census, there are over 150 towns peppered across Montana with under 200 residents.
Most of the smaller towns have a grocery store, post office, gas station, a bar and a church, and for the most part they are located close enough to larger communities that residents who can’t find what they need in their own community can drive a short distance to find it.
We are a convenience for most of our customers. They appreciate that we have what they are looking for.
- Tonya Brost
But what about those communities that are more remote? What do residents do when they need to feed their families or their livestock, or they have a plumbing issue or an electrical need?
For three small communities in eastern Montana, the owners of multi-purpose businesses, or what we call general stores, have dedicated their lives to accommodating their communities by offering as many products as possible. They are unsung heroes as they work to fill the needs of their customers at the cost of long hours, marginal profit and rare time away. Here are three:
Richey Montana, population under 200, is in the heart of Dawson County. Located 45 miles from both Sidney and Glendive, it’s a bit remote by most standards. A glacial plateau formed what is now prime wheat country as far as the eye can see on both sides of the two lane highway leading in from Glendive.
Cattle and sheep ranches checkerboard the breaks, and homes and barns are few and far between. On the main street of Richey is the one and only retail business in town. Big Sky Hardware, Lumber and Grocery has been dubbed by the locals as both “Richey Mini Mall” and “Richey Walmart.” A step inside the front door would confirm that both names are appropriate.
Owned by the Brost family since 1974, the store has just about everything you can imagine. On a recent Saturday, Tonya Brost was working alone, which isn’t unusual, ringing up purchases while asking customers about their family, their projects, or if they had started lambing yet. It’s easy to see she’s not only a shop owner but a friend to many.
Customers steadily filtered in to buy everything from ingredients for a birthday cake, to air filters, hose couplings, eggs and milk, dog food, a couple of 2x4s, and hot coffee.
“We try to have a little bit of everything,” Tonya smiled. “Our selection isn’t huge for each item, but at least we have them.”
Back in 1974, when Vern Brost, Tonya’s father-in-law, bought the store, it was a hardware store and John Deere implement store. Vern bought it knowing that the implement store was pulling out of Richey, and he started expanding from the hardware to a repair shop and lumber. In 1985 when the only grocery store in town closed, it only seemed natural that the Brosts would offer groceries, too.
“We couldn’t have a town without groceries,” Vern said. “We had to fill that gap.” With a new building, Vern put in groceries and a beauty shop. “We had to give people a reason to stay in town,” he added.
At one point, the distribution center for groceries in Billings closed and the nearest location to order from became Salt Lake City. The Brosts were told they would have to have a minimum order every month in order for a truck to come to them.
“It was a big number,” Vern said. “So, we put it to the community, ‘If you want groceries, you’ll have to commit to shopping here.’ They stepped up and we’ve run far ahead of the minimum order ever since.”
Vern retired and moved to Billings to manage a hardware store when his son, Jeff, and Tonya took over in 1996. Jeff also manages the family’s lumber store in Circle and his son, Kimball, oversees the sale of an impressive selection of farm and ranch supplies and offers a delivery service as well.
Inventory is tracked by computer and the Brosts can tell at a glance when they are running low on items, and what the best seller is. In addition, Tonya’s happy to place special orders for folks.
It’s a huge convenience for Richey residents, who count on the store to be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Sundays.
“It’s our life,” Tonya continued. With just one part-time employee, the hours can be long. “But there’s always something going on. You never know what a customer will want.”
Residents in the small town depend on Tonya and her family for their needs. Supply trucks come twice a week to the store, once for the hardware and once for the groceries. Tonya uses Facebook to announce if there’s been a shortage of something or when she’s running a special. She knows the needs of her customers and tries her hardest to meet them. Beyond being the only store in town, the hardware/grocery/ranch store is a place where residents come to socialize. Lengthy conversations can be heard in the hardware aisle as a couple of ranchers debate that afternoon’s football game and two young mothers compare notes on their kids’ school projects.
Tonya knows that when her friends and customers leave Richey for business in Glendive, Sidney or even Billings, that they sometimes stock up on things, and she knows that Amazon has played a part in stealing sales in rural areas around the country, but she keeps a positive attitude.
“I understand that,” she says. “But most of the time, it’s not worth the time to drive to town to save a few dollars. What might be saved in dollars has to be weighed against time away. We are a convenience for most of our customers. They appreciate that we have what they are looking for.”
“It’s the heartbeat of our town,” a customer said as she finished her purchases. “It would be a very sad day for this community if they ever decided to close.”