That includes groceries, crafts, tools, hog equipment and farm
equipment parts, electrical and plumbing items, a coffee bar,
sunglasses, watchbands, cards and gifts.
Mainstays are lutefisk, herring and lefse.
Sales of lutefisk and herring particularly during December help
keep the rural store open, Tiegen said.
But things change over time and so has Tiegen's Oslo Store,
which is located on Minnesota 30, about 12 miles west of Highway
63.
``Twenty years ago, when I started with Dad, work clothing was a
big item, a big part of the business,'' he said. The store no
longer sells work clothing, although it still sells Red Wing
boots.
Tiegen, 53, said farmers -- who make up many of his customers --
suffered depression years between 1982 and 1988 and have had two
more bad years in 1992 and 1993. Farmers used to gather at the
store to drink coffee and chat with their neighbors.
Today, you might catch a farmer or two stopping only
occasionally for a cup of coffee alone. Tiegen said there aren't
many young farmers and those still in agriculture have another job
keeping them too busy to sit around and drink coffee.
But over the years farmers bought more than coffee and still do.
Farmers stop in to buy parts they need right away, but Tiegen
doesn't always have the right one.
``I can't rely on agriculture to make a living,'' he said.
``Otherwise I would have locked up in 1987.''
Instead, Tiegen has tried to be versatile in his offerings.
``You have to go with whatever works,'' he said.
Tiegen finds his Scandinavian offerings growing more popular
each year.
For the past few years, he's published a mail-order Scandinavian
Wish Book.
Customers can purchase lutefisk, herring, lefse and a variety of
Scandinavian gifts and cooking items.
This year, Tiegen sent out more than 800 fliers, up from around
600 last year. Every person that walks through the doors walks out
with a flier, Tiegen said.
``I'm still not sure if it's profitable,'' he said, ``but I know
it pays its way, so I keep it going.''
He compiles his mailing list from addresses on cashed
checks.
Sometimes orders come from people who get presents of lutefisk
or herring.
Tiegen said he just got a call from a man in Rockford, Ill., who
received a pound of herring as a gift.
``He liked it so well, he called five times and kept adding to
his order,'' Tiegen said. ``I shipped it this morning.''
However, retail sales of lutefisk and herring are still stronger
from customers who stop at the store.
The same day he mailed the order to Illinois, a man from Wykoff
spent about $50 on 14 pounds of lutefisk and another man from New
Richland spent about $20 on five pounds.
On another day, three women passing through Oslo on a return
trip from Rochester stopped in and each bought a pound of
herring.
Tiegen said sales like this keep business alive.
Also, herring sales are moving ahead of lutefisk sales, he said.
In 1992, Tiegen sold six tons of lutefisk and six and a half tons
of herring.
Tiegen expects herring sales will hit seven tons by the end of
the year.
His family found the recipe in the 1960s. A company in the Twin
Cities makes it and packages Tiegen's Extra Sweet Herring.
Tiegen's parents, Alice and Glenn, bought the store in 1942. The
first store was built on the site in 1875 by Mads J. Ellingson of
Oslo, Norway.
``He put up a store building here and started Oslo,'' Tiegen
said.
Tiegen believes lutefisk has always been sold out of the
store.
He orders it from Mike's Fish Co. in Glenwood and Olsen's Fish
in Minneapolis.
Tiegen said they buy bulk quantities of dried fish from Norway
and process it over a three-week period, including one week in a
lye solution.
The old tradition of drying cod was to hang it on rafters on
mountainsides in Norway. Now the cod is dried in a
temperature-controlled room.
Tiegen believes this results in a higher quality lutefisk
because drying conditions are more uniform.
He sells the kettle-ready lutefisk from a 50-pound container
that sits in a cooler inside the store.
An old bathtub, from which his dad used to sell lutefisk, now
sits next to the cooler. His father, Glenn, died about four years
ago.
Tiegen said he put the tub away years ago, but set it up again
after customers felt that was part of the tradition of Tiegen's
lutefisk.
Tiegen has one full-time employee and several part-time
workers.
His 78-year-old mother, Alice, lives next door and sometimes
opens the store if her son is running behind schedule.
Tiegen grew up next to the store, got married and left Oslo
until around 1971 when he returned with his family and started
working with his parents. @etp
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