Rural Grocery Spotlight: Satanta Grocery (Satanta, KS)

Satanta Grocery in Satanta, Kansas (pop. 837) has been open at its current location for over 50 years. The current owners, Renee and Shawn Massey, purchased the store in 2011. Read highlights from our conversation with Renee (which has been edited for length) conducted after we visited the store below.

 

When we visited your store, it sounded like your store plays a big role in the community. Can you share more about some of the things that you do and what your role is in the local community?

We deliver to the hospital twice a week. We cut meat for them and deliver dry goods to them. We deliver our school district’s milk. It’s twice a week when school’s in session, once a week during the summer. We have Satanta Days which we usually make at least 800 burgers to be grilled in the park. During the 4-H fairs we support their event. They have a hamburger and hot dog feed for about 800 people. We try to help the community with donations to schools and try to give if it’s a cause we feel we can support. We usually give a discount for what they need. Recently, there was a person in town that spent a week in the hospital and they worked at the school, we helped with some of the stuff donated for them.

What do you think your store is most known for in the community?

Probably fresh cut meats and hometown service, carrying food out for people, helping them. I even take people home that come to the store and bought more food than they could carry. The other day, I followed a lady home and helped her carry everything in. We also have local produce from Montezuma Produce located in Montezuma, Kansas. They have a greenhouse there and they bring us fresh hothouse tomatoes and cucumbers right now.

Can you tell me about some of the improvements and upgrades you've done recently?

Five or six year ago we put in LED lights through the whole store. In 2024, we put a new roof on and new air conditioning units. Through grants we were able to get new shelving at the front of our store and also add a stand-up freezer and refrigerated cooler. We’re looking to put in a rotisserie chicken cooker. And eventually, I’m going to get another cooler and sell fresh cut flowers. I would like to do the floors but there is no money for those right now.

When you put in the LED lights, how significant was your change in energy usage?

It changed a little. I would think at least $300 a month, maybe even a little more. The main thing about the lights is we were having somebody come in every other month just to change the ballasts, there could be six lights out. So it could be over $1,000, just depending on what they had to do. Those ballasts are not cheap and then electricians aren’t cheap either. We run about $4,000 a month for electricity. We have all open coolers, to help save a lot of energy we need closed coolers. Our coolers are really old too. So to make a significant difference in the bill, we would have to go with new closed coolers. It would also help with the longevity of the food if we had an enclosed selling case. With an open meat counter, the longevity of the meat doesn’t last as long.

If you could take a magic wand to change anything or get any resource you need, what would it be?

Utilities are huge, the utility bills kill you. So, help with energy efficiency would be good. It cost $18,000 to put LED lights in.

What are the biggest challenges your store faces on a day-to-day basis?

Just trying to keep prices affordable. And in a small town like this, trying to find staff is really huge.

What advice would you give to other rural grocers who are just starting off or may need help?

Well, the first thing is customer satisfaction. And making your grocery store to where people want to come back. The second thing would be prices. Try to keep your prices down as much as possible. I know everybody can go to places like Walmart, but some of my prices are cheaper than theirs right now. We run yellow tag, super smart buy sales and a lot of my tags are cheaper. Some stuff I can’t get cheaper though. It’s a lot harder now to compete than it was 20 years ago for a small retail grocery store like this because of Walmart and Sam’s and Dollar General and places like that that move in and can undercut you. So I would say the number one thing is customer service. When you come to work, whether you’ve had a good day or a bad day, you always have to have a good day. And reflecting to your employees how important it is when you’re not here, that customer satisfaction is the number one thing.

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