The ‘golden goose’ of Elphinstone

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This article was published 16/02/2022 (1681 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every time Tom Kwiatkowski walks across the old Douglas fir floor and returns from another trip to the basement to stock inventory, he is taken back in time to an era when his store was simply known as Tony’s.

He has been up and down these stairs probably 10,000 times over the course of his time serving the community of Elphinstone and more recently, has taken over the store that his father opened on July 1, 1939.

After moving away many years ago, the connection Kwiatkowski shared with the store and community called him back to carry on the legacy of Tony’s for the next generation.

It had been nearly 15 years since Kwiatkowski last visited Elphinstone. Last June, Kwiatkowski had caught wind from the former owner that the store (formerly Hilltop Groceteria) was up for sale. Months later, the new owner of TK’s Corner Store & Gas feels like he signed up for a much-needed energy boost in life.

“I don’t feel tired at all, I feel like a kid again,” Kwiatkowski said.

“I feel like I’m 64 going on 35. Just go, go, go.”

The history of his father’s store is very important to him, and its 80-plus years of serving Elphinstone have helped keep the community on the map, according to the new owner.

With only a Grade 5 education, Kwiatkowski’s father Tony, after managing the family farm, married Doris Shindruk and together, the two ran the original store. Kwiatkowski’s older sister recalled a time when the store had a café as well that had barstool seating.

According to Kwiatkowski, his father was known by many as “Tony Bologna,” as the store carried many Winnipeg Old Country products.

The one-stop shop featured an oil dispensary and oil change station, and his father sold everything from groceries to automotive supplies and knick-knacks for the household. Kwiatkowski’s father hand-dug the basement to the store and built a two-foot-thick cement foundation.

A well was added on for access to water, and Kwiatkowski was told his father would go out of his way to bring back Spruce logs from a mill north of Horod to use for the flooring and beams.

“The story goes there was a freak snowstorm. My dad was so stubborn he wouldn’t get off the horse, he was frozen to it,” Kwiatkowski said.

As he walks around the store today, Kwiatkowski is reminded that his parents had a long-term vision.

“You don’t see construction like that today,” Kwiatkowski said.

“I built houses on the West Coast with my cousin, probably almost 25 to 30 houses before I went on to the city. Now that I’m back, I just say ‘wow, we never built it like this.’”

Kwiatkowski, along with his eight siblings, all took a turn working for their parents’ store. Everything from pumping gas, stocking shelves and placing grocery orders in grade school, to chopping wood and gathering coal to keep the place warm in the winter. He remembers people coming in and getting the hardwood floor dirty with chewing tobacco.

“All of us kids had the toughest hands in school, even tougher than the farm boys, from pumping gas.”

Kwiatkowski’s father passed away in 1969 when Tom was 12. Kwiatkowski’s mother passed away in 1977 on the same day the store originally opened in 1939.

Based on their Polish family tradition, the next in line was set to take over the store. Kwiatkowski’s brother Doug ran the store for a few months until he was called to work as a dispatcher for the RCMP.

“He said to me, ‘you’re next, Tom,’ and he paid me $250 a month to run the store, offering me all I could eat, drink and the gas I’d need.”

Kwiatkowski looked into the books, and after a short period of time realized he could run the store operations better.

“I said ‘Doug, this is the end of me working for you, I’m running this by myself’ — and I doubled the business right away.”

Kwiatkowski remembered the night he went to the bar as the store’s new owner as he headed down to the then Valleyview Hotel with a coworker. Buying the first round in a small town on a Saturday night and a $180 bar tab created $15,000 worth of business, largely from the support of the nearby Keeseekoowenin First Nation.

He knew his parents were always very respectful and friendly with the people from Keeseekoowenin, and he used to play hockey with several of the First Nation’s residents.

“Without them, there is no store,” he said.

From 1977 to 1979, Kwiatkowski told the Sun that he made more money than he knew what to do with as a kid. Buying a car with cash in Brandon, a top of the line Canon A1 camera and a colour TV all brought him a great deal of excitement. But after seeing his friends move to Winnipeg and siblings move out west, Kwiatkowski sold the store at 21 and set his sights on bigger things.

“Mom and dad always said, ‘don’t ever sell the golden goose that lays the golden egg.’ At 21, you think you’re wiser than your parents.”

After briefly moving to Alberta, Kwiatkowski got a call from his brother in Kamloops, B.C., with a potential job waiting for him at a friend’s waterworks company. Starting work in less than three days following his move, Kwiatkowski began a long career in water construction and engineering, giving him a chance to work all across British Columbia.

Thirty-one years of working for the City of Surrey engineering department brought Kwiatkowski full circle to last June, when he learned his original “golden goose” was up for sale. Kwiatkowski said roughly 15 years ago, he tried to buy the store back but could not come to an arrangement on the price with the former owner.

By 2021, the former owner wanted to sell, and Kwiatkowski made a deal the second time around. Kwiatkowski said he needed time to settle his affairs in B.C., and after retiring from a career in waterworks started arranging for large shipping containers to be sent from Langley, to Elphinstone. It was his goal to keep open the store that had not been shut down since 1939.

The owner arranged for a crane to be sent in from Virden to move the shipping containers, and the people from Keeseekoowenin brought over a backhoe to help build a new gravel base.

Kwiatkowski said since then he has been able to redo the eavestrough and some renovations on the exterior. He had even kept the old “Tony’s sign” he had since 1979 and put it back on display in its bright red colour.

Recently, Kwiatkowski said his business is busy as ever since fully taking over in November and is a welcome return for many people from the nearby First Nation.

“The moment the old owners left, people stepped in here for the first time in 25 years.”

Open generally from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., Kwiatkowski said he will keep the store open late in the evenings for customers and wants to have the store returned to its days as a full-service grocery store with household necessities.

In addition to adding West Coast Coffee and plans for beer and wine sales, Kwiatkowski would like to add spray-foam insulation, a red tin roof, new computerized self-serve gas pumps and a building addition for a place for his two kids to stay when visiting from B.C.

Kwiatkowski said there may only be roughly 50 people left in the community from the older generation and another 800 to 1,000 people from the nearby farms and Keeseekoowenin First Nation. In his return to Elphinstone, he has since been buying up properties from the RM and would like to maintain the lots for future interest.

“I feel like I’m the catalyst, and people are getting excited about the area again.”

With a sense of extreme gratitude for the people of the community, Kwiatkowski is beyond excited to start a new chapter continuing the legacy of his family in small-town Manitoba.

“Every time I look at the structure I always say, ‘wow thank you dad, you did this for us.’”

» jbernacki@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @JosephBernacki