Dahl’s Foods

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Dahl’s Foods was a Des Moines grocery institution that served generations of Iowa shoppers for more than 80 years. Founded by W.T. Dahl in 1931, the company started with a modest 1,000-square-foot store on the east side of Des Moines and eventually grew into one of central Iowa’s best-known supermarket chains.

Dahl’s built a reputation for being surprisingly innovative. Its Beaverdale supermarket, opened in 1948, reportedly featured the first supermarket bakery between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Another location offered an unusual drive-up system where customers’ groceries traveled underground to a pickup building in the parking lot. Then, in 1981, a Dahl’s store on Ingersoll Avenue became the site of what is credited as the first grocery-store purchase in the United States made with a debit card.

But decades of history couldn’t insulate Dahl’s from an increasingly crowded grocery market. Facing competition from chains including Hy-Vee, Fareway, Walmart, and Target, the company began closing stores and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2014. Its remaining locations were sold, and by March 2015 the last Dahl’s stores had been converted to Price Chopper or Cash Saver.

Eighty-four years of groceries, bakeries, and even a little payment-card history — eventually checked out for the last time.

Our Dahl’s Foods collection celebrates the familiar logo, neighborhood supermarkets, and the memory of a homegrown Iowa grocery chain that once seemed like a permanent part of Des Moines.