Hometown Market under new ownership

NuWay-K&H Cooperative is the new owner of Hometown Market in Thompson, as the store’s shareholders have elected to sell the store after 19 years in business.

Hometown Market will continue to operate under the same name, providing both groceries and fuel.

A community effort led to the opening of the store in April of 2000. Hometown Market board president Irven Olsen explains that the town had been without a grocery store for a few years, so the Thompson Community Development Group started up two new organizations, Thompson Charities, Inc. and Thompson Supermarket, Inc., in pursuit of building a store. The group sold 51 shares for $5,000 each to raise money for the store, including 20 that were purchased by Thompson Charities. Additional funds were raised from local donors and a grant from the State of Iowa, and construction started in 1999 with the help of donated local labor.

Olsen says Hometown Market serves as an example of what a community can accomplish. The business has been a success, and the mortgage was paid off early in 2016. Olsen says shareholders have discussed selling Hometown Market for the past two or three years, as the shareholders are getting older, and it’s harder to find people to serve on the board. When NuWay-K&H made a firm offer to purchase the store and continue selling both groceries and fuel, Olsen says the shareholders voted unanimously to sell.

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