The ribbon-cutting ceremony at L&M Fleet Supply’s grand opening on Thursday featured representatives from the Lake Superior Community Partnership, Marquette City Commission and L&M employees. (Journal photo by Alexandria Bournonville)

MARQUETTE — L&M Fleet Supply, a new hardware and outdoor supply store with a variety of offerings, hosted the first day of its grand opening events on Thursday.

“L&M started originally in 1959 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in a 1,200-square-foot building,” said Del Matteson, the company’s co-owner and chief of operations. “It was started by Del Matteson, which is my grandfather and James Luthen, which is the grandfather-in-law of my partner, Erik Andersen. Then the second generation was my father Terry Matteson and Erik Andersen’s father-in-law Don Ley, and now we’re the third generation.”

Matteson and Andersen currently run the business in tandem with another Matteson brother, Shawn.

This new Marquette location at 1150 W. Washington St. makes it the 13th store opened in the country. There are eight locations in Minnesota, three in Wisconsin and now two in the Upper Peninsula, the other one in Escanaba that opened about a year ago.

In terms of what makes L&M unique, Matteson said L&M employees take pride in their customer service.

“A big part of our mission, vision and values is the golden rule, so treating people the way we would want to be treated whether that’s us interacting with our employees or interacting with each other as our teams, and how we treat our customers, obviously, and how we take care of … customers,” he said. “That’s extremely important and that’s been a big part of what has made us successful.”

Another plus is the variety of products sold at the store. With 14 major departments, L&M stocks firearms, hunting and fishing equipment, clothes, toys, candy, old-fashioned sodas, lawn-care supplies, farming supplies and more.

“We have brands like Stihl and Husqvarna and Cub Cadet,” Matteson said. “We have a lot of name brands and some of our own private brands also, so we have a wide variety of products and we try to have a low price, a fair price, with high quality service.”

Matteson encouraged customers to come to the rest of the grand opening activities, including a grill out today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., sales throughout every department, and the opportunity to get expert advice from L&M product vendors. Additionally, the first 500 customers who visit the store today will receive a swag bag and a $5 L&M Supply gift card.

Professional angler Jimmy Houston will also be on-site through Saturday with his boat.

Alexandria Bournonville can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 506. Her email address is abournonville@miningjournal.net.