THE VOLGA GERMANS IN PORTLAND
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Community > Businesses > Grocery and Meat Markets

Grocery and Meat Markets

Grocery and meat markets operated by fellow Volga Germans were important parts of the community supplying local residents with the foods that they were accustomed to in Russia as well as offerings from the New World.

Over time, most of these businesses gave way to the large commercial operators such as Fred Meyer and Safeway which located stores in the community.
Danewolf Grocery Store at NE 13th and Failing in Portland, Oregon
Danewolf's Grocery and Meat Market on NE 13th and Failing. Lydia and Marie Danewolf stand in the entrance to the store.
Conrad Brill, from his personal memoirs titled Memories of Norka, wrote the following about the grocery stores and meat markets in Portland:
There were several of our fellow Volga Germans, or Russian Germans, as some preferred to be called, in the grocery and/or meat business. Like most grocers of those days, they did most of their business on credit, or on the books. Usually it depended on a person's job and how often he had paydays, which determined how often he paid his grocery bill. There was very little cash and carry business, which came into being mostly with the so-called supermarkets in the late thirties. Most employers paid their employees twice a month or every two weeks, then it was usually on Friday. When you paid your grocery bill, you usually got a cigar and a sack of penny candy to take home to the children if you had them, but which German family didn't?  The grocer had wooden barrels of dill pickles, sauerkraut, pickled pigs feet, drums of kerosene, 100 pound bags of potatoes, sugar, flour, rice and beans. He bought from wholesalers, farmers and even neighbors who had good fruit, berries or vegetables. Farmers brought eggs and live chickens usually on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. My son killed and plucked about 50 chickens in a store basement every Friday night after the store closed, which were sold to our noodle soup makers on Saturday. He and his employer also made about 200 pounds of bratwurst on Friday afternoon before killing the chickens. 

They would sack up potatoes, which were sold by the peck, or bushel, rather than the pound. Fruit was sold that way too. There were hundreds of Grade A raw milk dairies around and the price of milk was six cents a quart. Any bulk items, which came in barrels, could be bought by any amount you wanted, scooped into a grocery bag. Some of our countrymen in the grocery/meat business were Repp Brothers, Danewolf's, and Krombein's. During Prohibition you could even buy a little bootlegged whiskey at some stores. Usually it was put in a sack under a peck of potatoes and the supplier wasn't stupid enough to sell to someone he couldn't trust.

STORES

  • Bonny Slope Grocery
  • Brown's Market
  • Browning's Grocery
  • Colonial Grocery and Market
  • Danewolf's Grocery
  • Ebel's Market and Grocery
  • Fenning's Market
  • Fremont Market
  • Flaig's Food Market
  • Gaylord's Market
  • Conrad Green Market
  • Greenfell's Market
  • Hergert & Son Meat Market
  • H. J. Helzer Grocery
  • Alexander Hildermann's
  • H and W Food Market
  • Hildermann's Grocery and Meat Market
  • John Leel Market
  • John H. Sinner Grocery
  • Krombein's Grocery
  • Lehl & Popp Grocery and Meat Market
  • Lincoln Park Grocery and Market
  • Nagel's Grocery and Market
  • Peterson's Grocery
  • Repp Groceries and Meats
  • Repp and Sinner Grocery
  • Richter's Market
  • Ritter's Market (NE 13th and Emerson)
  • Schnell's Grocery and Meat Markets
  • Swint's Food Market
  • U.S. Sanitary Market
  • Yost Brothers Meat Market and Grocery
Last updated June 21, 2022
Copyright © 1998-2023 Steven H. Schreiber
  • Home
    • About This Website
    • Reviews
  • History
    • Historical Timeline
    • Migration to Russia
    • Emigration from Russia
    • Settlement in America
    • Migration to Portland
    • Little Russia
    • A Short History of Albina
    • World War I
    • The Volga Relief Society >
      • Portland Volga Relief Society Subscribers 1921
    • World War II
    • Assimilation and Dispersion
  • Beliefs
    • Churches >
      • Albina Seventh-day Adventist Church
      • First United Mennonite Baptist Church
      • Ebenezer German Congregational Church
      • Free Evangelical Brethren Church >
        • German Evangelical Congregational Brethren Church
      • Second German Baptist Church
      • St. Pauls Evangelical and Reformed Church
      • Second German Congregational Church >
        • Evangelical Congregational Church
      • Zion German Congregational Church >
        • Rivercrest Community Church
    • Pastors
    • The Brethren
    • Denominations >
      • German Reformed Church
      • German Evangelical Synod of North America
      • Evangelical and Reformed Church
      • German Congregational Church
      • Seventh-day Adventists
      • United Church of Christ
  • People
    • Our People
    • Notables
    • Pioneers 1881-1892
    • Stories
    • Photographs
    • Help Identify These People
  • Community
    • Characteristics
    • Businesses >
      • Bakeries Retailers and Services
      • Garbage Haulers
      • Grocery and Meat Markets
      • Restaurants >
        • Helsers on Alberta
        • McCormick & Schmicks
        • Wildwood
      • Saloons and Taverns
      • Suppliers and Manufacturers
    • Employers
    • Education
    • Sports
    • Maps
    • Documentary
  • Traditions
    • Foods
    • Folk Medicine
    • Expressions
    • Weddings
    • Holidays
    • Folk Music
    • Funerals and Burial Sites
  • Resources
    • Family Research
    • Books and Video
    • Works Cited