family owned industry retail founded 1939 by m.w. bob kiesau and jean kiesau headquarters grand forks north dakota usa products amish furniture clothing footwear farm equipment automotive parts sporting goods housewares lawn & garden supplies hunting & fishing equipment toys . website www.homeofeconomy.com home of economy is a chain of retail stores with 7 locations in north dakota grand forks grafton devils lake minot williston watford city and jamestown . home of economy sells a variety of goods clothing work wear home furniture housewares automotive goods tools farm supplies hardware lawn and garden supplies paint pet supplies hunting and fishing equipment and sporting goods . contents 1 history 2 locations 3 references 4 external links history edit founded in 1939 in thief river falls minnesota by bob kiesau and his wife jean home of economy was originally an auto parts wholesale business . in february 1940 bob started a store in grand forks north dakota recapping used tires at night and selling them during the day . in the years since home of economy has grown to include stores in other north dakota cities including grafton devils lake minot williston watford city and jamestown . home of economy is considered by many to be the first discount store . prior to home of economy s discount program free trade laws required retailers to sell at high fixed prices and only fleet operators with five or more machines could receive discounts . in 1950 bob kiesau sent his employees to every county seat in the trade area to copy names and addresses of each taxpayer who had listed three or more tractors or combines . he assumed each farmer would have at least one car and one truck that would not be listed on the tax report . from this list a fleet identification card was mailed to every farmer enabling them to buy at fleet discounts . on december 3 1987 fire destroyed the store in grand forks . the store was back in operation in three separate temporary locations less than a week after the fire began . their company s motto is variously be wise economize the friendly store where your dollar buys more . locations edit grand forks 1508 north washington street grafton 868 west 12th street devils lake 1205 highway 2 east minot 107 20th avenue southwest williston 2102 2nd avenue west watford city 113 6th street se ste 5200 jamestown buffalo mall 2400 8th ave sw references edit und center for innovation prairie business magazine university of north dakota news external links edit home of economy website home of economy blog retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title home of economy & oldid 654994378 categories companies established in 1939companies based in north dakotafarm and ranch supply stores of the united states1939 establishments in minnesota navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 5 april 2015 at 02 38 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view