MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner signs off

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support


	ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Patsy Krech's customers didn't mind waiting. They wanted to go through her checkout line.

 
	When they reached her, she'd welcome them with the same warm greeting:

 
	It was one of the many things that made Krech the heart of Rainbow Foods in West St. Paul, an outgoing, colorful cashier well-liked by customers and co-workers during her 51 years in the grocery business.

 
	They say the South Robert Street store is not the same without Krech, who retired in early August at age 89 - but only after she had a stroke at her West St. Paul home.

 
	They ask, 'Where's the little gray-haired lady?' " Wendy Lewis, who works the customer service kiosk, said of customers. "People ask all the time how she's doing. We let them know that she had a stroke."

 
	Krech's family, friends, former co-workers and customers gathered last week at the Fireside Lounge, a few blocks from the store, for a belated retirement send-off, 

. It was a surprise for Krech, who was brought there by her sister Carol Creamer.

 
	"Oh ... how embarrassing," Krech said as she entered the party room.

 
	She fought back tears as she made her way around the room, greeting everyone.

 
	"Oh, Jimmy ... I had no idea," she said as she hugged her grandson Jimmy Bader.

 
	Bader, like many family members, followed in his grandmother's footsteps. He manages the dairy and frozen foods departments at Rainbow in Shoreview.

 
	"To her, they weren't customers ... they were her friends," he said. "And she didn't seem to let the cranky customers upset her."

 
	Curt Hendrickson, who has worked at the West St. Paul Rainbow for 20 years, called Krech the "store's den mother."

 
	Customers purposely waited in her checkout line, creating a big backup, he said.

 
	"I'd see her line of customers stretching nine deep and all the way down the frozen-foods aisle," he said.

 
	Meanwhile, other checkout lanes were wide open.

 
	"She had that type of effect on people," he said.

 
	Carolyn Bingham and her husband, Kit, were two of those customers. After they moved from St. Paul to Mendota Heights in 1997, Carolyn "cased the store," looking for a friendly face at the checkout line. She found Krech.

 
	"I wanted a cashier who would know me, who would chat with me," Bingham, 80, said. "I didn't want someone who just rang up my stuff and sent me on my way. I tried her out and she was perfect. She is absolutely one in a million."

 
	Krech grew up in West St. Paul as part of a large Irish-Catholic family; Hurley is her maiden name. At age 18, she married Butch Krech, who was from St. Paul's West Side Flats and worked as a manager at Oscar Applebaum's first grocery store at West Seventh and St. Peter streets.

 
	In 1962, after raising three children, she was hired by her husband to cashier. By the late 1960s, two of her sisters, Carol and Jane, were also cashiering there.

 
	When the store later moved to Fifth and Wabasha streets, the sisters went along.

 
	"Our customers were the people who lived in and around downtown, and the businessmen and all the shopkeepers and the attorneys and judges," said her sister Carol, of West St. Paul. "We had great rapport with them."
 

	By the late 1970s, Applebaums had become one of the area's first successful supermarket chains. The company changed hands twice before it became Rainbow Foods.

 
	"We all went to the new West St. Paul Rainbow and many customers followed us out there," said Creamer, 77, who still cashiers at the store part time.

 
	In recent years, Krech worked 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday -- a schedule that she "earned," Lewis said.

 
	"No weekends," Lewis said. "I always said that she was 'grandmothered in' with those hours."

 
	But if the store needed help on busy Sundays, Krech would come in and work, Lewis said.

 
	"She wanted what was best for the store," she said.

 
	On St. Patrick's Day, Krech would show up to work in green pants, a green shirt and a green hat, "looking like a leprechaun," Lewis said. "Even if she didn't work, she would still stop in on St. Paddy's Day."

 
	About two years ago, after she began slowing down a bit, Krech's job changed, Creamer said. She was put in charge of restocking the groceries that customers decided they didn't want once they got to the checkout lines.

 
	"The management was great letting her stay on," Creamer said.

 
	At her celebration sendoff, Krech said she felt "very good" healthwise and is adjusting to retirement.

 
	"Being nice to people is not hard," she said. "I loved the people, because I believe that what you give, you get back tenfold."

	Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com

Gallery

In many ways, Patsy Krech was the heart of Rainbow Foods in West St. Paul. An outgoing, colorful cashier well-liked by customers and co-workers during her 51 years in the grocery business, Krech retired in early August at age 89 - but only after she had a stroke at her West St. Paul home. Krech's family, friends, former co-workers and customers gathered last week at the Fireside Lounge, a few blocks from the store, for a belated retirement send-off.

'Little gray-haired lady' checks out at last

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox