Oct. 11—ZUMBRO FALLS, Minn. — When Reggie Reinke purchased what would become Reinke’s Corner north of Rochester in the bicentennial year of 1976, he was 19 and had little idea of how to run a store.
What he did have was a strong work ethic honed from being raised and working on his family dairy farm. The store boasted a can’t-miss location. So he made a go of it with no idea of how long it might last.
It ended up wildly defying his expectations. The years added up. Next thing he knew, Reinke’s was within reach of a seemingly unimaginable milestone: 50 years of serving a wide band of loyal customers as a cultural and commercial fixture. And Reinke, 68, can hardly believe it.
“I had a guy here a few years ago who asked me, ‘You gonna make it to 50?'” Reinke said. “I don’t think I’ll stick around that long.”
Yet he has. The store’s future, however, is now clouded by uncertainty. This odd little store that stands at the corner of U.S. 63 and Minnesota Highway 247 is where the state plans to build a roundabout in 2027. The project will encroach on Reinke’s land and could possibly force the store’s closure.
And in a measure of the affection many have for the place, people who have attended open houses hosted by Minnesota Department of Transportation officials to discuss the project often ask the question: How will this affect Reinke’s?
“It was often the first question or comment that came before their own individual interest in the project,” said Michael Dougherty, MnDOT’s director of public engagement and communications.
And to that question, Reinke says he simply doesn’t know.
“I guess I’m gonna wait and see what truly happens with this roundabout,” Reinke said.
Reinke’s is a very unpretentious place. It defies easy categorization, combining an old-style country store with 1970s vintage gas pumps. Reinke hustles out of the store to pump gas for and chat with patrons.
The store is also an artistic landmark, wrapped in a colorful mural that depicts the length and breadth of the Zumbro Watershed over a 24-hour period in a single year. Its celebration of Minnesota culture and depiction of small towns, restaurants and bars along the river catches the eye of passersby, many of whom stop to photograph it.
It’s easy to imagine why the muralist Colleen Ihrke chose Reinke’s Corner to serve as her canvas. Her artwork was guaranteed a captive audience. A daily average of nearly 16,000 vehicles passed through the intersection — from east and west, north and south — in 2024, according to MnDOT officials.
And therein lies part of the secret to Reinke’s Corner’s success and longevity. Although the store for drivers can seem suddenly to loom on the horizon out of nowhere, it is ideally located: Eight miles to Rochester, a dozen miles to Plainview, 9 miles to Zumbro Falls and 6 miles to Oronoco.
“I’m in the middle of nowhere and in the middle of everywhere,” Reinke said.
The store has become a fixture for customers for another reason. It is as reliable as the rising sun. It is open seven days, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and Easter are the only days the store is closed.
But even on days off, Reinke is doing store-related stuff such as tank monitoring. Reinke figures the last time he had a full day off, when he wasn’t “doing something for the store,” was 28 years ago, on a Sunday before Christmas of 1997.
“You got to be here when everybody else is out,” Reinke said when asked why he doesn’t take more time off and cut himself slack.
Reinke said the idea of running a convenience store originated with his dad. His dad ran a 60- to 70-cow dairy farm, but there wasn’t enough work to divide between Reinke, his dad and an older brother. One day, his dad came home and asked: Anybody want to run a station? The store at the time was called Harwood Corners. It had been around since the early 1940s. Reinke, the youngest, said OK.
“What the heck, I’d give it a try. You got to do something in life,” said Reinke, who at 19 obtained a loan to buy the store with help from his family, who put up the collateral. “I never dreamed it would be 50 years.”
Over the years, his late mom and a sister also worked at the store to give Reinke a break or to run errands.
It helps that Reinke has the shortest commute possible. The store is attached to his three-bedroom house in the back. Reinke only has to open a door to find himself stationed behind the till.
The store is stocked with eggs and bread, cereal and canned fruit, pizzas and sandwiches. It’s also a bait shop for anglers who are heading to the Zumbro, the Mississippi River or up north.
“It’s a rare place in today’s world,” said Steve Russell, a Reinke’s customer. “The old-style pumps are not computerized. He comes out and pumps it for you. He doesn’t have a lot of groceries, but he’s got a few staples.”
For a life that has been so stable, it’s hard to imagine what the future holds for Reinke beyond 2027, when work on the roundabout is set to begin.
There are multiple scenarios. Two years is still a long way off, but then so was 50 years at one time. The store needs a lot of fixing, but he has held off due to the store’s uncertain future. If the state takes the store, what’s the point?
He has thought vaguely about the possibility of life after the store.
“My family’s here, but I got no kids or nothing, so go somewhere where Social Security isn’t taxed,” Reinke said.