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A neighborhood grocery store

Monette’s keeps its customer base with fresh products, specialties

THREE GENERATIONS NOW work in Monette’s Market in Kingsford. In back are Ranee and Alan Monette, who took over the small grocery store from Alan’s father, Francis Monette, in 1982. In the middle, from left, are store manager Nicole Monette and her oldest daughter, Marleigh, who has become the fourth generation involved in the business. In front, from left, are Nicole’s other daughters: Rosie, 8; Maddie, 10; and Maggie, 14. (Betsy Bloom/Daily News photo)

KINGSFORD — Nicole Monette grew up at the grocery store her grandfather had started in 1957.

She remembers “my brother and I running up and down the aisles” as her dad, Alan, and grandfather, Francis, worked in Monette’s in Kingsford, the third grocery store her grandfather had operated in the area. Her parents, Alan and Ranee Monette, had taken over the business in 1982.

“You choose the career that chooses you,” Alan Monette said of staying with the store for 52 years so far.

The first job Nicole would have was stocking shelves there, while still in Kingsford High School.

Now, she’s manager at Monette’s Market, the third generation running the little store at 375 Woodward Ave. just off the corner with Carpenter Avenue.

MONETTE’S MARKET IS at 375 Woodward Ave., just off the corner with Carpenter Avenue in Kingsford. (Theresa Proudfit/Daily News photo)

Nicole stepped back into Monette’s about five years ago.

“It’s a challenge,” she said of working as a partner with her parents in the family business, “but we worked it out … I’m glad I’m here.”

In continuing the business, Monette’s is bucking the trend of bigger is better in grocery stores.

It’s tough these days to compete with larger grocers that can stock a larger variety of items. Monette’s counters this by focusing on products it can offer that can’t be found at those big-box grocers — fresh-cut meat, fresh baked goods, homemade sausage and porketta.

Especially the sausage and porketta, both still based on her grandfather’s recipes, Nicole said. In a community where so many are of Italian decent, the expectations for both tend to be pretty high, but Monette’s has won awards for best porketta in the area.

“He was French,” she noted, “but hey, it works.”

Monette’s has three part-time meat cutters, two with the store for years, one that started training within the past year.

Dave Wickman, 74, first learned the trade when Felch had a grocery store. The 1962 Felch High School graduate and former paratrooper has been at Monette’s for more than a decade.

“I enjoy the atmosphere … working with the people,” Wickman said.

He, too, credits the store’s fresh meat and bakery for keeping the customers coming back — and was willing to reveal the secret of a good porketta.

“They all say, ‘What do you put in it?’ But you have to start with a lean pork butt — that’s the important thing,” Wickman said.

They make small batches of sausage almost daily, too, so that’s fresh as well, he said. The bakery boasts bread, buns, cinnamon rolls, cookies and bars, all made on site by Pat Jacob, who has arrived at the store just before 4 a.m. to get the ovens going for the past 17 years.

“I love doing it,” Jacob said. “I get the enjoyment of the people really liking what I’m making, telling me they enjoy the bakery.”

That doesn’t mean nothing changes at Monette’s. In the past year, they invested in new freezers and display cases for meat and produce.

The store now is more of a “stop for a few things” store, rather than providing all the groceries customers might need, Nicole and Alan both explained.

“We do have a little niche,” Nicole said. “You want to keep that traditional part, but also freshen up.”

But they take pride in maintaining that neighborhood market feel. “We know them by name … we have the best customers,” Nicole said.

She plans to continue that tradition as she takes on this larger role at Monette’s. Alan Monette has been battling cancer that has reduced the amount of time he can spend at the store.

“Just nice people to work for,” Wickman said of Alan and Ranee Monette, adding that when Alan does come in, “he’s still the boss.”

“My dad really enjoys this place,” Nicole said, “and he’s a wealth of business knowledge, and I really enjoy him here.”

But both of her parents are ready to step back, Nicole said.

“We’re really proud of her. She does a great job,” Alan Monette said of his daughter continuing the family business. “We think her grandfather would be very proud, too.”

And a fourth generation has become involved in Monette’s — 17-year-old Marleigh, the oldest of Nicole’s four daughters, now one of the 14 employees at the store.

As a single parent, Nicole Monette said she hopes to show her girls “they can run businesses, too.”

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