1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: No railway, no problem; trucks keep Steinbach growing

Steinbach had its first “big box” store long before anyone knew what that concept meant. Main Street in the little village of Steinbach boasted a 17,000 square-foot general store that stretched back a city block, and sold everything from groceries to grease guns, to ladies knee-high leather boots to plow shares.

H.W. Reimer’s was a one-stop shop established by one of Steinbach’s earliest pioneer families, in an era when goods were transported by rail and people by horse and buggy.

When the H.W. Reimer family decided in 1963 to close their store after 77 years, other Steinbach families had already stepped forward, to make sure a growing population would not run short of groceries. The Vogt Brothers had an IGA store next to the town’s most popular restaurant, Reimer Foods across the street had grown to cover almost half a city block, and Penner’s Tom Boy had a 16,000 square-foot food and hardware store on Main Street, as well.

When the town’s grocery stores extended their hours to include evening shopping on Thursdays and Fridays, The Carillon moved its publication day to Wednesday to accommodate subscribers who looked forward to comparing prices in the weekly grocery ads.

Steinbach merchants have always found a way to meet the challenge of competition against the big city supermarkets. In fact, they have been so good at it, the big city supermarkets and big box stores have opened shop in Manitoba’s third largest city.

Founded in an era when a rural community could not be expected to survive, never mind grow, without railway access for transporting goods, the pioneers of Steinbach found a way, not only to survive, but to prosper, with the nearest train station some eight miles away.

The popular rally cry of “It’s Worth the Trip,” helped to boost automobile sales, and a local trucking company had a slogan of its own, to remind residents just how important their industry was to the growth of the community. “If you bought it in Steinbach, it came by truck.”

It is more than a coincidence that three major transport companies got their start in Steinbach. Nor is it a surprise that all three have their roots in family businesses. Reimer Express, Southeast Transfer and Penner’s Transfer kept growing right along with the community they served.

It could be “Carload Frank” Reimer trucking in another train carload of beans to stock the shelves at P.B. Reimer and Sons, P.K. Penner and his son Milton hauling in another load of car parts from Ontario or George Coleman and his son “Red” making sure all those cans of milk were picked up at the farm gate in a timely fashion.

Through it all, the business centre of the community grew as the population grew, and family businesses like Derksen Printers and The Carillon passed from a first generation to a second, and on to a third, attracting outside corporate interest along the way.

Today, Steinbach, with a population of nearly 18,000 (17,824 according to the 2021 Canadian census), is the third largest city in the province. While many family businesses have given way to large corporations, the vibrant business community previous generations established and nurtured is still very much evident.

Hopefully, this weekly visit to the past will be an opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of many of the people who played a role in the growth of this wonderful city and at the same time, provide a few snapshots of the changing face of Main Street and of the ever-expanding residential, business and industrial landscape.

The Steinbach Chamber of Commerce hardly needs to remind shoppers in the Southeast and its big city neighbors that it is still “Worth the Trip.”