COMMUNITY THROUGH FOOD · LEBANON, KANSAS
150 People. One Grocery Store. A Much Bigger Idea.
Keeping a full-service grocery store in a town of roughly 150 people requires thinking differently. At Main Street Mercantile, grocery is one part of a larger food system built around our community, local agriculture, and the belief that good food can create opportunity.
Why we do things differently
In a town of 150 people, one business cannot always afford to do just one thing.
We need the same essentials as a larger supermarket: refrigeration, freezers, equipment, staff, inventory, utilities, trucks, technology, and building improvements. Here, those costs are shared across a much smaller customer base. That scale has pushed us to be creative.
We stopped asking how a traditional grocery store was supposed to work here and started asking what kind of food business our community actually needed. The answer reaches well beyond the grocery shelves.
One food system. Many connected pieces.
GROCERY
LOCAL AGRICULTURE
LOCAL AGRICULTURE
Everyday food and household essentials close to home. The Merc is the place where this food system meets our neighbors, one grocery basket at a time.
LOCAL AGRICULTURE
LOCAL AGRICULTURE
LOCAL AGRICULTURE
Our ties to farming and livestock bring more of the food chain closer to the people eating it—from the farm to the meat counter, kitchen, and table.
MEAT
LOCAL AGRICULTURE
PREPARED FOOD
Locally raised meat and growing processing capabilities let us add value here. That food can reach a grocery basket, a prepared meal, or a customer beyond Lebanon.
PREPARED FOOD
DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER
PREPARED FOOD
Prepared meals and food production put ingredients, equipment, staff, and our kitchen to work in more ways. The same resources help feed a family tonight and a gathering tomorrow.
CATERING
DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER
DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER
Through The Salty Sow, our food and kitchen serve weddings, businesses, community events, hunters, families, and organizations across the region. Every gathering gives this shared food system another purpose.
DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER
DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER
DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER
Food sales beyond Lebanon connect us with customers near and far. Outside dollars return to our rural community, supporting the people and resources that also serve our neighbors.
COMMUNITY
COMMUNITY
COMMUNITY
Breakfasts, events, partnerships, and conversations over coffee bring people together. Those everyday connections help shape what we grow, prepare, stock, and build next.
Why it matters
Keeping food close to home means fewer long trips for everyday needs. It also means local jobs, more opportunities for agriculture, and more reasons to stop in Lebanon.
When the same buildings, equipment, people, and food supply serve several kinds of customers, each investment can do more. More food dollars can circulate locally, and rural families gain access to products and services that might otherwise mean significant travel.
The goal isn’t simply to keep a grocery store open. It is to build enough opportunity around food that the store—and the community around it—can keep moving forward.
COMMUNITY THROUGH FOOD
More than a tagline. It’s the connection behind everything we do.
The farmer raising food. The people preparing it. The family filling a grocery basket. The customer ordering meat across the country. A group sharing a catered meal. Neighbors having coffee in a small Kansas grocery store.
Each is part of the same idea: build a good food business that creates lasting opportunity here. That’s the future we’re working toward in rural Kansas.
Find your connection
COME BY. BRING AN APPETITE.
Main Street Mercantile
413 Main Street · Lebanon, Kansas
This website uses cookies.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.