{"id":172376,"date":"2018-02-21T09:29:03","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T15:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/?p=172376"},"modified":"2025-08-06T13:16:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T18:16:43","slug":"historical-perspective-arrowhead-plaza-dans-supermarket-closes-after-65-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/172376\/historical-perspective-arrowhead-plaza-dans-supermarket-closes-after-65-years","title":{"rendered":"Historical Perspective: Dan’s Supermarket Closes At Arrowhead Plaza After 65 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

An icon and fixture for over sixty years, today is the last day for Dan’s Supermarket<\/a> at Arrowhead Plaza<\/a>. The store has already been erased from the company’s website and even Google Maps.<\/p>\n

Despite long-held rumors of its closure, official confirmation<\/a>\u00a0stunned residents earlier this month. Until its closure, the store remained a popular neighborhood grocer reflective of its retro roots. Many favored the store as a quick, simple shopping destination and considered it essential to a neighborhood popular with senior citizens. It was a perfect compliment for Arrowhead Plaza, which arguably boasts about every essential need and has seen steady occupancy through-out its existence. It was the mall’s sole anchor.<\/p>\n

\"Dan's<\/a>

Dan’s Supermarket at Arrowhead Plaza<\/p><\/div>\n

While the company itself was founded in 1949 as Bismarck Supervalu, the store at Arrowhead was the first “Dan’s” when it opened in November 1953 at the newly christened Arrowhead Plaza.<\/p>\n

The name remained exclusive to the Arrowhead store for years until being formally adopted across all of its locations.\u00a0Interestingly enough, Dan’s is not named for a real person, but rather a marketing character named\u00a0“Super Dan the Valu Man.”<\/p>\n

Its original location was in the space most known as housing Ben Franklin until 2007 – first as a variety store, later as a craft store. Dan’s relocated in 1960 into its final home when Arrowhead Plaza expanded north.<\/p>\n

\"Arrowhead<\/a>

Arrowhead Dan’s Supermarket interior in 2018<\/p><\/div>\n

The store underwent a $500,000 renovation in 1987; a look that remained largely unchanged to this day.<\/p>\n

From its 1949 inception, Dan’s and its siblings – locally owned until 2015 – experience exceptional growth and success, even outside of Bismarck-Mandan. Below is a timeline highlighting some of the company’s history.<\/p>\n

See Also:\u00a0Image Gallery: Arrowhead Dan’s<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dan’s Timeline<\/h2>\n

1949 – Roy Rockstad & Eugene “Bus” Leary\u00a0convert the former Piggly Wiggly to Bismarck Supervalu<\/p>\n

1953 – Arrowhead Plaza location opens<\/p>\n

1960 – Larger Arrowhead Plaza location opens<\/p>\n

1970 –\u00a0Kirkwood location opens<\/p>\n

1971 – Original Broadway location shutters<\/p>\n

1975 – Century\u00a0location opens at Kmart; “Bus” Leary Retires<\/p>\n

1980 –\u00a0Dan’s purchases and converts existing Dickinson grocery store<\/p>\n

1981 – Gateway location\u00a0replaces Century location<\/p>\n

1982 – Second Dickinson location\u00a0opens<\/p>\n

1985 – Roy Rockstad retires; son Terrance takes reigns<\/p>\n

1986 – Cheyenne, WY location opens<\/p>\n

1987 – Dan’s purchases land along South Washington Street, temporarily preempts construction. Dan’s also completes a $500,000 renovation of its Arrowhead location.<\/p>\n

1991 – Cheyenne location expands<\/p>\n

1993 – Rapid City location opens<\/p>\n

1995 – Washington Street location replaces\u00a0Kirkwood location; Gillette location opens<\/p>\n

1996 – Cheyenne location sold to Buttrey’s<\/p>\n

1999 – Mandan location opens<\/p>\n

1997 – Capital Credit Union opens inside Dan’s Gateway location; Three additional Wyoming locations purchased (in\u00a0Wright, Gillette, and Sheridan)<\/p>\n

2003 – State Street location\u00a0replaces Gateway location<\/p>\n

2011 – Dan’s remodels south store<\/p>\n

2013 –\u00a0Dan’s purchases and converts Bismarck’s\u00a0Central Market<\/p>\n

2015 – Sunrise Town Centre location opens; SpartanNash acquires\u00a0company<\/p>\n

2016 – Dan’s remodels north store<\/p>\n

2018 – Dan’s Arrowhead closes February 21, 2018 after nearly 65 years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An icon and fixture for over sixty years, today is the last day for Dan’s Supermarket at Arrowhead Plaza. The store has already been erased from the company’s website and even Google Maps. Despite long-held rumors of its closure, official confirmation\u00a0stunned residents earlier this month. Until its closure, the store remained a popular neighborhood grocer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[518,2409,2757,216,364],"tags":[493,528],"class_list":["post-172376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bismarck-news","category-business-news","category-commentary","category-featured","category-home-page","tag-arrowhead-plaza","tag-dans-supermarket","location-bismarck"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}