By Sarah CR Clark

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Tim & Tom’s Speedy Market, which observed that ownership milestone on May 10 with a neighborhood party and many sales in the store.

The day’s festivities included food trucks, a petting zoo featuring Paul Hueg’s (of Park Service) friendly baby goats and prize drawings.

“We are so grateful to be able to serve the St. Anthony Park community and beyond,” Speedy said on a social media post the day of the party. “These 30 years have been incredible! The best is yet to come.”

Co-founders Tom Spreigl and Tim Faacks bought the building at 2310 Como Ave. on March 8, 1995, from Schroeder Milk Company. Schroeder operated a Speedy Market from the location which was co-managed by Spreigl and Faacks since 1987.

“In about ’92 or ’93, Schroeder decided they wanted to get out of the convenience store business, which is what this store used to be, a convenience store,” Spreigl explained during a recent interview.

“This store was the oddball in the whole Speedy Market portfolio,” Spreigl said. “The rest of the Speedy Markets were straight convenience stores, most of them with gasoline.”

But not 2310 Como Ave. Spreigl described how Schroeder Milk Company was nonunion in a time when St. Paul and Minneapolis had strong grocery unions, therefore Schroeder couldn’t sell their milk to unionized grocers. Rather, Schroeder served independent grocery markets and convenience stores.

Spreigl said, “When the mom-and-pop stores started retiring, in our case it was the Blombergs, Schroeder purchased a handful of those shops. At one point, Schroeder had two or three grocery stores with meat departments, and this store was the last one of those.”

Spreigl remembers the scene of Schroeder’s Speedy Market from 1981. When he was an assistant manager, “They had sawdust on the floor, the butcher would be in the back smoking a cigarette and cutting steaks with a saw. There were always barrels of lutefisk.”

In the early ’90s Spreigl and Faacks worked to improve the store, preparing for it to sell, when a family acquaintance suggested to Spreigl that he buy it.

“I laughed,” he recalled. “Probably three weeks later I said to Tim, ‘Harry said we should buy this place.’ And he laughed just like I had.”

However, thanks to the wise counsel of Faack’s dad, Spreigl’s good record keeping, and their previous success as co-managers, Tim and Tom purchased the store from Schroeder after a couple of years of negotiating.

“Why name it Tim & Tom’s Speedy Market?” Spreigl asked. “Because we didn’t have the money to put up new signage. So, we just added our names to it.”

Co-founders Spreigl and Faacks owned and operated Tim & Tom’s Speedy Market together for 24 years, until Faacks retired in January of 2019. During those years, the co-founders offered a wide variety of products with the purpose of figuring out what would stick.

“We would just try things,” Spreigl said. Things like the sandwich card program, which began in 1996 with a new heater case and roller grill.

Eventually that was followed by a Trudeau-branded baking oven for baking bread and cookies. And readers might also remember Speedy’s hand-dipped ice cream cart on the front patio, between the years of 2011-2016.

The idea for Speedy’s garden center was born on the tarmac at MSP airport. Spreigl’s plane was delayed due to thunderstorms so he started talking to the person sitting next to him. That person, it turned out, worked at Bailey Nurseries’ tree farms.

“He asked if I’d ever thought of having a garden center. And I said, ‘Well, I’ve always been kind of interested in that.’ By the next summer we were selling plants and learning how to water them and cover them on frosty nights. My wife ended up being the flower person here for a long time.”

Spreigl is grateful for how his wife, Jackie and Faacks’ wife, Maria, supported both families and also the store.

“Before Tim and I actually bought the store, my wife Jackie had to be on board. And she was. I was here six days a week for six years at least, so everything else fell to her,” Spreigl said.

All the long hours paid off for Tim & Tom’s Speedy Market. The store was named Best Neighborhood Grocery in City Pages 2018 Best of the Twin Cities issue.

The following year, the St. Anthony Park Community Foundation named Spreigl and Faacks recipients of the Spirit of the Park Award in 2019 and Mayor Melvin Carter proclaimed July 4, 2019 Tim Faacks and Tom Spreigl Day.

Spreigl’s sons, Jake and Ted, both spent a significant amount of time growing up at the store. Jake recalls one specific time, “I cashiered for the first time when I was in second grade, for Bring Your Child to Work Day.”

Tom remembers a kind cashier named Mary, who was willing to show Jake how cashiering worked that day. Jake followed her to the front of the store and Tom went back to filling produce.

Eventually, Tom realized he hadn’t been called to the front of the store to assist with cashiering like usual. So, he decided to check on Mary and Jake.

“I walk up and there are two lines going,” Tom continued. “Jake is on one of the tills, ringing customers up all by himself and Mary just shrugged at me and said, ‘He’s doing really well.’”

“That’s better than my story,” Ted added with a laugh. “I painted the basement once when I was in high school. As a punishment.”

When asked if the brothers had always wanted to make a career of working at the store, both said no. But, as Ted said, “We’re good at it. And we’ve never not worked here.”

”I actually tried a little to discourage them,” Tom confessed. “Just because it’s a different life.”

“I still don’t think people know the physical and mental tolls it takes to work in the grocery business,” Ted agreed.

“But, it’s not like we’re saying, ‘Woe is me,’” Jake added. “It’s just that, even when you’re not here, you’re still here. You’re always on call. There is always paperwork to do, emails to send, and calls to take.”

Tom added, “You can generally handle working 12-13 hours in a row, but when you start pushing 17 hours it’s a little too much.” The store used to be open until 11pm, but closing time moved earlier in 2002.

“Bad stuff starts to happen after 9 p.m.,” Tom recalled. “And Covid changed our hours again to what they are now.”

“We were here for like, 50 days straight when Covid hit, but I kind of lost track,” Jake remembered. “That was crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy.” Tom agreed. But the staff of Speedy persevered.

In the spring of 2024, both of Spreigl’s sons purchased portions of the store.

A social media post from March 14, 2024, said, “Tom is proud to say that his sons, Jake and Ted, will be purchasing a portion of the store. No, this is not an announcement of Tom’s retirement, rather an announcement of the next generation taking a lead in the ownership of the store, ensuring that Tim & Tom’s Speedy Market isn’t going anywhere and that we will continue to serve the St. Anthony Park community and beyond for years to come.”

Tom told the Bugle, “I’m fortunate and lucky to work with my kids. I want folks to know that.”

Ted and Jake, in their new roles of co-owners, have already been adding to the store’s voice and vision. Three times already in 2025, Tim & Tom’s Speedy Market was featured in CBS news segments.

Ted appeared in front of the camera each time talking about the high cost of groceries and how tariffs could potentially affect pricing.

The brothers have also been adding to the store’s inventory. Tom explained, “When Ted got here he reached out to Untiedt’s for produce and Jake has gotten really into the specialty foods markets. There’s so much stuff that I can’t even remember it all.”

”For the most part this neighborhood is very open to experimentation. They’ll try things and you’ll find out real fast if they like it or not,” Spreigl explained. Some of the best-selling products throughout Speedy’s history: milk, coffee, ice cream and their handmade sandwiches.

Spreigl recalled a customer years ago requesting quinoa, before most folks had heard of it. “We found it, began selling it, and then it exploded.” Bob’s Red Mill brand oats, flours, and more followed the same story.

Ted added, “In those instances we were ahead of the curve. Whereas it took people a little while to realize they liked hummus. And hot sauce didn’t sell ten years ago, but now it’s selling great.” Organic produce and specialty chocolate were other products with higher price points that, at first, put customers off but today are good sellers.

When asked about their future hopes for Tim & Tom’s Speedy Market, Ted answered, “I’d still like to see expansion in this space.” And Jake, half-jokingly, shared that his biggest hope is for the store to simply stay open.

“There has been no point in history where customers have more grocery shopping options than right now. It’s frustrating to see folks get off the bus with full bags from larger grocery stores, especially now, after the big distributor switch we made last year. We’re cheaper now than most of those places on a lot of things,” Jake explained.

“It can be frustrating,” Tom added, “to hear people in the aisles say ‘Oh, we’ll get that later when we go grocery shopping.’ I want to say, ‘But you’re in a grocery store right now!’”

“I was saying to somebody recently,” Ted said, “that what we would love is if, instead of going wherever first and then coming to Speedy for what they didn’t have, come here first.”

He continued, “Thirty years from now, Jake and I want to be able to reflect and be proud of the legacy we’ve built upon. We want to continue the long standing and storied history that has made 2310 Como Ave. so successful and one that will be talked about in times beyond our lives.” 

Sarah CR Clark lives in St. Anthony Park and is a regular freelance writer for the Bugle.

Photo cutline: The owners, past and present, of Tim & Tom’s Speedy Market pause during the store’s 30th anniversary party on May 10, 2025. From left to right: Jake, Ted, Tom Spreigl, Tim Faacks.   Photo by Sarah CR Clark.