Mor-For-Less: Hard work and little bit of luck, the family-owned grocery store perseveres

Wayne and Coleen King headed out from Louisville in the middle of a snowstorm with their three kids packed in the back seat of the 1971 Mercury Cougar Coleen had won in a radio contest three years earlier.

They had decided to buy the A&P Grocery Store on Fourth Street in Huntingburg, and groceries were set to arrive the next day. Wayne wanted to be there when the trucks pulled in with the supplies for the couple’s new grocery store. So, he pushed through the snowstorm on the completed portion of Interstate 64 until it ended in Corydon and then headed over to Highway 64 to finish the trip in the six inches of snow.

They made it back in time and were able to fill the four aisles of the small store located two buildings down from the corner of Fourth and Jackson.

They operated there for about four years before moving to the new location at the corner of First and Main Streets. The original store is now part of the Touch of Class Outlet, but 40 years later, the Kings still sell groceries at the store known as Mor-For-Less.

Wayne and Coleen’s story together began when, as a 17-year-old from Fort Branch, Coleen and her friend Rhecia decided to come over to Huntingburg. “My friend said there were cute guys in Huntingburg,” she said.

The two girls went to Fred Souder’s house—Rhecia knew Fred—but there they were told the boys were at Wayne’s house, so they headed there, and that is where she met Wayne. A few weeks later, Wayne and a friend came by and picked up Coleen and Rhecia to go to a movie. “They already knew which guy was going with which girl,” Coleen said.

The two stuck together after that.

Wayne began working in the grocery business when he was 16, and in his early 20s, he decided to head to Louisville, where he knew he had better opportunities in the A&P corporation. While he was there, Coleen attended school in St. Louis until finishing and joining him. They remained in Louisville for several years and grew their family to five with the addition of Todd, Rhecia (named after Coleen’s friend who brought her to Huntingburg), and Andy.

When Wayne took over the store on Fourth Street, Huntingburg had at least 17 grocery stores. “I can take you up and down the streets and point out where they were all at,” Wayne said.

Ran by families, they supplied their local neighborhood with the necessities. Those stores are long gone, and these days, the city has two dedicated grocery stores on opposite ends of the town, with convenience stores filling in the gaps. At 76 and 74, respectfully, Wayne and Coleen still come to work at their store about every day.

Wayne is pragmatic. Moving from a 3,500-square-foot building on Fourth Street to the 10,000-square-foot building on First and Main was a jump for the family, but success was just a matter of work. “I remember people coming in; a lot of good friends and a lot of good customers when we opened. It was real nice,” he said. “But you just have to get to work.”

And that’s what the couple has done for years. Orders need to be made, customers tended to, shelves stocked, payroll made and bookkeeping completed. While Wayne worked the floor of the store, Coleen took over the books and the division of duties worked. But that doesn’t mean Coleen won’t take a walk through the store and point out a shelf that seems in disarray or produce that needs to be organized.

The grocery business isn’t just putting food on shelves and hoping customers purchase it. There is innovation, and Wayne has been sure to monitor his customers’ needs through the years. For example, when the Latino population began to grow in the area, he sought out sources for ethnic foods.

It wasn’t until he was on a vacation in California that he found a way to supply his grocery store’s shelves with the new foods. There, he walked into a Latino grocery store to check out their offerings and was able to take a number off of one of the food cans. From that number, he was able to find a supplier in Chicago and began carrying the foods for these new customers.

It is a similar story in Mor-For-Less’s expanding organic section and specialty labels like Boar’s Head deli meats and cheeses. Customers’ needs, as well as the call for high-quality offerings, have helped them make decisions on what items to carry.

Sometimes, looking back at what they have accomplished is a surprise. They are one of the few locally-owned family-operated grocery stores still around.

“I always think about how did we stumble through life the way we did,” Coleen said. “Talk about not having a plan. But who can know how to plan for something until they are in that moment? You can’t.”

Coleen did have a strategy for winning the car they drove through the snowstorm in 1974. The radio station held a contest in which they gave out a single digit of the serial number of a thousand-dollar bill. Once the final number was broadcast, the first callers with the correct serial number were given a chance to win the car.

Coleen had a friend who had been involved in a similar contest and knew the strategy to ensure she was one of the first to call in with the correct number. She had worked through the different combinations and gave them the correct serial number when the final number was called. She was one of the first to get the number right, and so, on Christmas Eve, she faced off with three other finalists in a drawing for the car or one of three other prizes; $600, $300 and $100. “The first two got the $300 and $100 and I was next,” she said. “I thought, ‘This (the car) is mine.’ I drew the ping pong ball, and it was mine.”

“There were the presents under the tree on Christmas Day, but we kept looking out the window at the car,” Wayne added.

The car was gone soon after they returned to Huntingburg—Andy’s car seat didn’t fit very well in the back seat. But the story is still part of their history, and Andy, who joined the business in 2001, has largely taken over the day-to-day operations. Wayne and Coleen still come in “mainly because we want to.”

In the nearly 40 years they have been open at that location, things have changed, as have people’s tastes and needs. Those changes could be seen in the store over the years, but recently, in a reflection of the quality offerings inside the store, the exterior went through a major update with a new facade and paint job. They are still in the process of rebranding, but the newly minted Mor-For-Less Market greets visitors to the city as they come in from the south.

It’s a good addition for a city in the throes of stellar changes, but for Wayne, Coleen and Andy, it’s business as usual.

Mor For Less Market can be followed on Facebook here.