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From his childhood in 1956 when “Old Main” burned down, to the town-altering closure of the meatpacking plant owned by Hygrade in 1981, to his personal leukemia battle in 2018, Steve Berg has seen it all and come out the other side. Family has been at the core of his identity. The relationship between his family and Storm Lake has shaped his path in life as it has for many generations of Bergs. He is part of a “Bergian heritage” of sorts that has left its impact on the community.
The child of a World War II veteran and a life-long resident of Storm Lake, Berg was born in Fort Dodge but spent most of his life in the City Beautiful. When he was two years old, in 1956, “Old Main” at Buena Vista College burned down. The Berg family home was just down the road, and so they walked towards the building and watched as flames engulf the structure, capturing it on 8mm film. Though the brick building still stood, it had to be torn down after the fire.
The business, which prioritized family in its ownership and practices, built close and loyal customer relationships spanning several generations.
In 1977, after returning home from the University of Iowa, Berg went into the family business. Berg Jewelers had been established in 1907, and at its height operated out of several locations around the state. His aunt owned the Storm Lake location before she sold the store to his father after World War II for $600. Many of their customers were descendants of Storm Lakers who had purchased heirlooms from Berg Jewelers in the course of its, up to then, seventy-year lifespan. The business, which prioritized family in its ownership and practices, built close and loyal relationships with customers spanning several generations.
The closure of Hygrade in 1981 had a major impact on Berg’s business. Up to then, it had been in healthy competition with several other jewelers. The switch over to IBP, and the importation of new populations of workers, changed the demographics of Storm Lake’s consumers, and thus, business practices.
Berg said that some new people in the community shopped and bought things from local businesses, but not as much as before plant change. “The percentage of workers [from] Tyson went way, way down as far as walking through my door, compared to when Hygrade was in,” Berg said. Perhaps the corporation’s continuing devaluation of worker’s wages, varied cultural associations with marriage, and the newly sharpened language barrier contributed to this gulf between Berg’s business and newcomers to Storm Lake.
The rise of malls and other larger retail stores in nearby Sioux City, Omaha, and Des Moines also contributed to the decline of local business, but it remained viable primarily due to customer loyalty built over generations. Back when Buena Vista was still classified as a college and not a university, “students would get their engagement rings at Berg’s or Paxton’s,” though that too had dwindled somewhat through the years. The average age of marriage continued to rise; when college-aged students were proposing to one another, they were more likely to buy from a national retailer. The biggest weapon Berg Jewelry had against these big corporations is its family charm and legacy in town.
Berg beams with pride when speaking of his own children and grandchildren. His son Andy is married with children, lives in Prior Lake, Minnesota, and works in software development. His daughter Amy lives in Des Moines. He also has four grandkids: Tate, Parker, Emmy, and Grace.
With his diagnosis in 2018, Berg was forced to shutter the business to pursue his rigorous cancer treatments. However, despite this closure, he revealed, “I’ve kind of opened it up again for special orders and appointments,” and his family’s business has once again survived, even if partly, against overwhelming odds.
Berg has also been dealing with the aftermath of a battle with leukemia. He tried a few different treatments, but a stem cell transplant and blood transplant, combined with chemotherapy, has helped him recently beat the disease. The donor of the life-saving stem cells, a young man from Germany who had been waiting to be a potential donor for 6 years, wrote to Berg. Always one to foster connections, he was touched by the power of his connection to this stranger halfway across the world.
With his diagnosis in 2018, Berg was forced to shutter the business to pursue his rigorous cancer treatments. However, despite this closure, he revealed, “I’ve kind of opened it up again for special orders and appointments,” and his family’s business has once again survived, even if partly, against overwhelming odds. As a 66-year-old Storm Laker who has seen many things in his lifetime, Berg has continued a family legacy through pivotal changes in the community.
