New Timmons Market opens, providing Box Elder its first, full-size grocery store

BOX ELDER, S.D. — The Box Elder community now has it’s first full-sized grocery store. The Timmons Market opened at 7 a.m. Thursday morning at 316 Villa Drive. About a dozen cars were in the parking lot ready for the doors to open.

For years, residents have asked for a store like this — most of the time they had to drive over to Rapid City to do their shopping

With the expansion of Ellsworth Air Force Base, the Mayor says this is just the first step in his city’s growth.

“The number one thing that comes up that people want in this community, is a grocery store of size, like this. So, it’s been a long time coming, I mean we’ve been working trying to entice different stores to come, and finally we were able to convince Timmons to come here and gosh, this is exciting for the community,” said Mayor Larry Larson.

The store was supposed to open last August, but like most things, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed back opening day.

We’ve experienced a few delays. Building a store in the middle of a pandemic is not ideal and so we’ve had delay after delay. And so, this is a day we’ve been looking forward to for a long time and we’re really happy that it’s here. But we’re just thankful to be a part of this community and thankful to everybody that showed up,” said Dan Bruner, owner of Timmons Market.

The new store also means new jobs for civilians and military families.