Yokes Fresh Markets: employee owned, independent local grocery chain of 17 just got bigger! Until recently, Yokes stores serviced the communities of the Spokane region, Tri Cities in Central Washington, and North Idaho. They are now adding the Montana market by the recent purchase the two Missoula Fresh Markets. These two Montana stores were previously under the banner of Safeway until 2015, when co-owners of the Orange Street Food Farm, Craig Holtet and Ron Ramsbacher purchased them.
Yokes Fresh Markets have been a staple in the Northwest since 1947. Yokes CEO John Bole said, “At Yoke’s our mission is to expand our services to this new market.” He also said the focus is to increase their offerings of natural, organic and specialty items, paying particular attention to expanding organic produce in this region. Yokes currently has an in-house bakery and Pier 39 Seafood which they will make available in Missoula. Both stores offer fuel stations which will be new to Yokes. Yokes also plans to do integration of their natural/organic offerings versus creating their Natures Corner store within a store format. The estimated square footage is around 53,000.
Over the next several weeks they will be focused on transitioning Reserve Street location over to the Yokes format and waiting until after the holidays to turn their attention to the Broadway store.