SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Since opening in 2021 Fair Market has expanded more than once into larger buildings, and most recently landed in a new location along Minnesota Avenue in central Sioux Falls.
Penney Flyinghorse says she’s been shopping at the discounted store even before egg prices skyrocketed. “With the bird flu and everything it just makes it so hard for people with lower income and poverty level and different things like that. It’s hard for them to be able to keep milk in the fridge and eggs,” Flyinghorse said.
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She says the store allows her to get more bang for her buck and was shocked at how big its new location is.
“The first time I was in here I walked in the door and I kind of looked around like, ‘holy pearl,’ this is a big place,” Flyinghorse said.
Fair Market’s executive director, Kristin Johnson first opened up shop in 2021. She says she never imagined the small staff of three would grow into a full on production.
“Never in a million years. I was at the time I was still in the taxi mom stage. So it was built around you know school drop offs and school pickup. And it was just a few days a week,” Johnson said. “So no, I just thought it would stay that way forever.”
Johnson says its when Empower Sioux Falls took over in 2022 that business really took off.The store moved into this new 10,000 square foot building in December 2024.
“Everything happened really quickly. And then even we were only closed one day and we were back open for business. And many of the customers who came in those first few weeks remember what a mess it was. But we wanted people to have the opportunity to still get the deals,” Johnson said.
Before the big move, Fair Market had two locations on the east and west side of town.Store manager Denelle Ensz says since combining locations, it’s been a lot easier to manage.
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“Before we had to run back and forth all the time. Call each other all the time. There was a lot of communicating all the time,” Ensz said.
Ensz says one of her favorite parts of her job is showing people the different items available.
“This whole corner here is our staples essentials. And we will always have something similar to this here. So if you don’t want to shop the salvage area or the overstock area, you’ll always know I have rice here. We have pasta. We have sauce. We have vegetables. We have meat,” Ensz said.
The store offers freezer items like bacon, and even cosmetics and baby products. Right now it even has some special seasonal goodies.
“So we got a whole Easter section going on. Sometimes in liquidation the reason you get it is because it’s after Easter and we’re able to source it before Easter. That’s super exciting for people,” Johnson said.
Johnson says with this bigger space, the team is excited to stock even more items for the community…Especially with grilling season just around the corner.
“We have more room for freezers and coolers. And so we’ve upped our purchasing on that too. So my next thing is kind of like getting getting into the produce. So hopefully this summer we’ll really get that rocking and rolling,” Johnson said.
“It’s almost a one stop shop, like you can get almost anything here,” Ensz said.
Fair Market also accepts EBT for people on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Gift cards to the store are also available for purchase.
