Angeli Foods was founded in 1917 by Colbasano, Italy native Alfred Angeli at 402 W. Adams St. in Iron River, now the site of Alice’s Restaurant.

It started as a meat shop and grocery, with home delivery using a 1924 Ford Model T truck now on display in the produce department of the current building at 833 Riverside Plaza in Iron River. The business employs nearly 100 people year round, with an added 10-15 during the summer months.

The store has remained in the family and in Iron County, with the founder’s grandson, Alfred John “Fred” Angeli, now at the helm as owner.

Over the decades, the store has expanded and added services to keep pace with changes in the grocery business. They pride themselves on having the best full-service meat, deli and bakeries in the area.

Cory Saigh of Angeli Foods shows a 1924 Ford Model T truck, used for deliveries nearly a century ago, and now on display at the Iron River business.

“Our cake decorator is second to none. She is pretty well known and she does a great job,” store manager Jeff Ofsdahl said.

Customers also can find a specialty section of Italian products. “If you are looking for something really specific that you can’t find at a Walmart, we have pretty good success finding something for people and getting it into the store and being able to take care of customers,” Ofsdahl said.

In addition to grocery, Angeli’s also offers Verizon services, UPS drop off and pick up and weekly dry cleaning.

Looking for the “next new adventure,” Angeli Foods decided to turn the video rental area into a sports store in November 2017, noting the shift away from renting video toward streaming, Ofsdahl said.

“We thought the county could use more options. We wanted to do a combo of fishing tackle, hunting equipment, apparel, where we could cover all four seasons. We also cover different kinds of ammo for the different seasons,” he explained.

In December, Angeli’s launched the Stormy Kromer outlet center.

“That was a partnership that developed through the economic summit from this summer through the Iron County Economic Chamber Alliance,” Ofsdahl said, adding that Bob Jacquart, CEO of Jacquart Fabric Products in Ironwood, the manufacturer of Stormy Kromer brand products since 2001, was a guest speaker at the summit. “How that works is we are an outlet center where you can come and look at the apparel that is available on display, or you can order through the catalog. If you are looking at buying a gift for somebody or something for yourself, you can order it through us and it ships for free and gets sent in two to three business days to whatever address you want.”

A holiday promotion kick-started the new line. “All the employees were able to pick out their favorite Stormy Kromer hat out of the catalog, and we wore the hats throughout the entire month of December here at the store,” Ofsdahl said.

Employees paying just $12.50 out of their paycheck to purchase their favorite hat, with Fred Angeli covering the rest of the bill. Some hats were $60 to $70, “so that was really generous of him,” said Ofsdahl, adding, “Customers got to see the different types of hats that were available. We able to show those off and people would ask questions. It was a very good promotion, and it has done really well so far. We had a lot of orders during the holiday.”

More is on the horizon for Angeli Foods, Ofsdahl said. “We have a few things in the works. Customers can expect some announcements in May,” he said.

“We are very proud and humbled to be able to still serve Iron County, and the north woods really, for as long as we have as a family-owned company. The Walmarts and the Meijers of the world are always going to be there, but for it’s great for us to be able to do as well as we are still doing after this long, to offer quality products,” he said.

For more information on the Angeli stores, call 906-265-5107.

Theresa Proudfit can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 45, or tproudfit@ironmountaindailynews.com.