Dan Kingsbury has lived in Alaska, Colorado, and Hawaii.
But he calls northern Michigan home.
As Store Manager at the Marion Village Market, Dan enjoys getting to know the friendly faces that make a northern Michigan community go. After all, he’s one of them.
He loves what he does, and does what he loves. As he says, “When you do something you love, you never work a day in your life.” He enjoys the various personalities, and the friendships that make the small-town grocery store work.
But there’s more to Dan than just managing the local grocery store.
He enjoys spending time with his wife, Leanna, and kids: Ethan, Jacob, and Owen. Together, the family enjoys camping and going to baseball and t-ball games. And after watching Star Wars as a young kid, Dan remains a huge Star Wars fan.
We caught up with Dan recently where we learned more about his story. We learned that Dan Kingsbury is certainly more than just another face in the crowd.
Marion Press: Where were you born and raised?
Dan: Clare. I was born in Clare, and raised a little bit in Colorado and Hawaii. I came back to Clare in about 2nd grade. My dad was in the military, so he was stationed in Colorado Springs, Colorado – my sister was born there. They got transferred to Honolulu, Hawaii, so I was able to spend kindergarten and 1st grade there.
MP: What kept you busy growing up?
Dan: I had one sister for the [early] part of my life, and then when I was 17, I had a second sister. I was into baseball and sports for the most part. Mostly baseball, a little bit of basketball; I did cross country and track in high school.
After high school, I went to college: went to Mid-Michigan Community College for a while, then I transferred to Central [Michigan University] and got my bachelor’s there.
MP: Are you still into baseball?
Dan: Yeah, for the most part. My three boys, two of them are into baseball. Collected baseball cards growing up. I’ve given them to my oldest son, and he’ll google them – he’ll try to figure out which ones are worth selling, and which ones are worth keeping.
MP: Where did life take you after graduation?
Dan: Right towards the tail end of college, 9/11 hit. I was hoping to go into some kind of computer field. I was working for the college as a student employee, and then when I graduated, I was no longer a student, so I was no longer an employee! Everything had kind of dried up, tech wise, so I went into grocery – which I had done prior, in my high school and early college days. I worked night stock, got promoted, got moved around.
After a while, I got kind of tired of working in grocery in Michigan, so I moved to Alaska for a while. I just wanted to see something new. I worked for Alaska Commercial – they paid for my expenses to move out there, and paid for my housing. I really didn’t have too many bills. I ended up meeting my current wife up in Alaska. When were expecting our oldest, we were like, “Alaska’s not really where we want to be raising kids – especially rural Alaska.”
MP: Alaska, wow! You really have been all over the place.
Dan: I started in Kotsbu, moved to Barrow, and then to St. Paul Island. [Working grocery] All of our ordering, we had to order weeks in advance, and depending on where you were, they either sent it by ship, or sent it by airplane. So if you think prices here are bad, it was like $10 for a gallon of milk!
MP: So you’ve spent around 20 years in grocery, how did you get started here in Marion?
Dan: From 2008 to 2017, I had bounced around working for a lot of stores with Spartan; a lot of corporate stores. It was closer to home, that’s why I transferred here. I still live over in the Clare/Farwell area. I’d been to Traverse City, Cadillac, Houghton Lake, Midland, Standish, Alma, Harrison…
After a couple of years, Spartan was letting the [Marion] lease go, and not looking to renew; kind of looking for an excuse to just let [the store] go.
Our current owner, Dan Ellis – who owns the Fife Lake Village Market – saw an opportunity, and wanted to step in and make it work. He kept everyone who was currently on staff. I started working here in 2017, and Dan took over in 2019 with the Village Market.
MP: What do you enjoy the most about working at the Village Market?
Dan: Every day is a challenge: What do I need to make things work today? That’s a challenge. I enjoy working with various personalities, and helping coordinate things to get to a full store for the customers.
MP: Speaking of a full store, Covid probably threw a bit of a wrench into that.
Dan: Covid was beautiful the first couple of months, when everything was selling… Then when it started to come to resupplying, and it was like, “Oh, Covid also affects our suppliers. And now we can’t get X, Y, and Z. And how do we fill our shelves?”
MP: What keeps you busy in your free time?
Dan: Mainly my three boys! My oldest is Ethan, he’s 13. He’s into baseball. He’s really good in school – he’s a straight A student. He wants to be a teacher. He’s seen what I do, and he said, “No thanks, Dad. You work hard, I think I’d like to go into teaching.” Jacob, he’s 10 years old, he’s just graduating 4th grade now. And the youngest is Owen. He just graduated kindergarten, and he just finished up with t-ball.
MP: What do the Kingsbury’s enjoy doing as a family?
Dan: We like to go camping. My wife [Leanna] is taking the kids camping this weekend – I’ve got to work – but they’ll be out camping. We’ve got a couple of associates getting married the next couple of weekends, so I’ll be filling in for them.
MP: Any other hobbies or interests that you enjoy?
Dan: I’m a huge Star Wars fan.
MP: Star Wars, right on! Where’d that come from?
Dan: My parents had taken me to see Star Wars in the theater, and I was so enamored. It was early in the year, and they had spent all the money for Christmas on Star Wars toys. And before Christmas hit, I was all into He-Man, and other stuff, and they were like, “Oh my gosh, what are we going to do?!” So they had another showing of Star Wars at the theater, and I was right back into Star Wars. I got all these toys for Christmas, and I was pretty enamored with it as a young kid.
MP: I know the Village Market also does a lot to give back to the community. Tell us about some of that.
Dan: We have the food drive – it’s not usually us, but we do try to donate some canned goods during that time. We donate to the little league. We usually buy stuff at the fair, and usually donate it back to the kids. Every week Grub 2 Go puts an order in, so we help get the kids fed for the weekend.
MP: What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Dan: Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life. I love working with the community, and what better goal is there than making sure people get fed?
MP: Who have been your role models over the years?
Dan: Growing up, my parents were role models. They were always pretty busy. For the big stuff, they’d always make time. When I was in Traverse City, I had a store director who really took me under his wing, and taught me some stuff: Rocky Welch.
MP: What do you enjoy the most about living in this part of Michigan?
Dan: The fact that it’s not as busy as some of the bigger towns. You get to know people; you get to know their history and their personalities. Just the fact that you get to know people and develop a relationship with people. You get to know people, and everyone gets to know you – more than you’d want to sometimes!