MILFORD, Neb. (KOLN) – The owners of Main Street Market opened a new location near the end of January, that is twice the size of their previous building. The owners designed it to honor both sides of the Bontrager family. <\/p>\n
\u201c(My daughter) obviously, she wants to take over the store someday, and then obviously, she\u2019s a part of both of us,\u201d said Craig Bontrager, who owns Main Street Market with his wife Karen.<\/p>\n
The south side of the building resembles stores from eastern Mennonite communities in Pennsylvania, where Karen is from. Since Craig grew up in Milford, the storefront looks like a Midwestern barn.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no other grocery store, and it\u2019s great,\u201d said Charlotte Roth, Craig\u2019s aunt and an employee. \u201cI\u2019m seeing and finding out that it\u2019s a great gathering place for people to come in, since there is a place to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Main Street Market sells groceries, home decor, Nebraska-made products and goods from Amish companies. There\u2019s even aisles for toys, cookware, produce and Amish furniture. In Pennsylvania, there\u2019s hundreds of stores like this one.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo my mom was raised near Pennsylvania, Amish country, and we still have all of our family out there,\u201d said Celia Bontrager, store manager and Craig\u2019s daughter. \u201cAnd I have just always loved these stores. It\u2019s actually always been my dream to own a place like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neil and Lucina Burkholder opened the Main Street Market in 2015. Celia worked there alongside her great-aunt Charlotte, who she calls \u201cAunt Char.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day, she came home, and Char mentioned the owners were wanting to sell the store,\u201d Craig said. \u201cAnd that was our chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bontrager family bought the Main Street Market in 2021. A majority of their products are either local or from Walnut Creek Foods, which is based in Ohio.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was probably within a couple months after we started up at the old store that we realized we were probably going to be out of space pretty soon,\u201d Craig said. <\/p>\n
Within about five months, the Bontragers built and opened a new store, along Highway 6. They built it in the place of a car dealership. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn defense of the old building, it was never meant to be a grocery store,\u201d Craig said. \u201cI remember it as a lumber yard when I was a kid, so it didn\u2019t quite have the space and electrical hookups that we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inside, the Bontragers hung up windows from a dairy barn that Karen grew up with, and they used wood from a barn nearby to build the deli. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom kind of does the d\u00e9cor side of things,\u201d Celia said. \u201cAnd my sister lives in Virginia, but she does all of the social media.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Main Street Market is as much a part of Milford as it is a part of the Bontrager family. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe realize that in our position by the highway, we are the gateway to the community,\u201d Craig said. \u201cAnd we want to support the uptown businesses as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Until the store is passed to Celia, Craig hopes that expanding will help them keep sharing the \u201cgood ol days\u201d with Milford. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have the drive-thru at some point, so people could eventually come through to get their soup and sandwich and maybe some groceries to make it more convenient,\u201d Craig said. <\/p>\n
Main Street Market will celebrate its grand opening during the week of March 17-22 at their location at 115 US-6 in Milford. The store is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays. <\/p>\n
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