Good Grief! Eastport store is open again

EASTPORT — From its early days as a post office, a saloon and local, rowdy meeting place, Good Grief Store is a welcome surprise to locals and travelers alike.

After a good amount of remodeling and refurbishing, the new owners, Stanislav and Svetlana Fedoseyev, who have been Idaho and Montana residents for over 25 years, made a decision to open the doors in May of this year.

The store is stocked with food staples like eggs, milk, and cheese, but people can also find some very unique items as well.

Stanislav stated, “We have people in the summertime from Brazil and Norway who visit the store and are happy to find familiar items for sale.”

The couple explains that people who stop into the store are often surprised at the selection of specialty food items such as a large assortment of chocolates, from European places, as well as meats, breads, and other exotic food, and the prices are fair.

They plan on rotating their seasonal inventory. At the moment, there are items remnant of the summer season such as beach towels and other summer recreational related things, which Svetlana said will be changed out periodically to reflect the seasonal needs. She plans to have unique and special Christmas items during the upcoming winter holiday season.

Good Grief Store has been open for four months now — after a 10-year closure — and has quite a following of happy, and satisfied, regular customers, who can often be seen in the comfortable seating area.

Ken Blockhan, a local resident who has been frequenting the many different establishments that Good Grief has been since 1977, is one of those regular customers. Blockhan is delighted with the way the new owners have redesigned and fixed up the old landmark.

“It’s never been this nice,” Blockhan said.

Blockhan has made the Good Grief Store his regular meeting place to hang out with store owners, and some of his long-time friends and neighbors from the area.

For the short amount of time that the store has been open, under new ownership, business has been steady and the store is thriving.

The store has a colorful history too.

“See those lids there on the ceiling? Those are bullet holes …” Stanislav pointed out.

Stanislav explained that the holes are remnants from some of the customers of the former businesses this site was home to. He has covered them with lids from canned foods and some pieces of wood.

A little bit of research on Good Grief, Idaho will reveal that sometime during the early 1970s, the television show, Hee Haw, had saluted Good Grief, Idaho as having “a population of three with two dogs and one old grouch.”

Stanislav and Svetlana Fedoseyev have commissioned an artist to recreate the sign that displayed that Hee Haw salute onto tee-shirts which they say, are big sellers.

Stanislav said that he found some old photos, in a trash pile, when he bought the property that he saved and placed on the wall inside the store. The photos are various scenes of the location in its varied capacities throughout the property’s history.

One of the future goals and plans for the store is to fix the outdoor decking, so that events and seating may be available outdoors. The store is located in a beautiful location, surrounded by tall, old-growth trees, and closeby to the Moyie River, so the outdoor seating area would likely be a nice addition to the already friendly and comfortable atmosphere.

Good Grief Convenient Store is located at 534171 Hwy 95 and on Facebook. They are open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

They have no landline at this time, but are responsive on social media.