Ana Pacheco: Adding a woman's touch

Julie Kaune was first female in her family to get into well-known grocery business

Ana Pacheco | For The New Mexican

11/24/2008 - 11/3/08

When Julie Kaune, 83, graduated from Santa Fe High School in 1943, she wanted to become a nurse but quickly realized that wasn't to be her calling in life. "I couldn't stand the sight of blood," she says.

Instead, Kaune spent two years at The University of New Mexico studying history, while also taking shorthand and typing. But it was her childhood years selling lemonade in front of her home on Don Gaspar Avenue that prepared her to run her family's grocery business in Santa Fe.

"I learned early on that to make your customers happy, you had to give them what they wanted," Kaune recalls.

Keeping the customers happy at Kaune Foodtown meant stocking jams from England, cheeses from France, New York's finest cheesecake and crown lamb roasts, which back in the 1970s was no easy task — unlike today, when food shoppers have an array of gourmet and organic food stores to choose from.

Shoppers flocked to Kaune's family store on Old Santa Fe Trail when they tired of the run-of-the-mill stock offered by Safeway and Piggly Wiggly supermarkets.

Kaune's special touch in catering to people's discerning palates helped her make her mark in the grocery business. "If a customer came in and wanted to order a special product, we would do that for them," Kaune says.

In addition to providing specialty foods, customers were allowed to charge their groceries and be billed once a month, long before charge cards became a common way to pay for food. Most of the restaurateurs shopped at Kaune Foodtown as well. "Rosalea Murphy from the Pink Adobe had an account with us," Kaune says.

Kaune came into the world with the grocery business in her blood. She was born to Gustave Kaune and Carol Nichols on Feb. 20, 1925, at the old St. Vincent Hospital. Her grandfather, Henry Kaune, opened the first grocery store bearing the family's name on San Francisco Street at the turn of the 20th century. "My grandfather moved to Santa Fe in the 1890s from St. Louis, where he also operated a grocery store," Julie Kaune explains.

Henry Kaune's four sons, Alfred, Charlie, Henry and Gustave, followed in their father's footsteps and started Kaune Foodtown stores on Washington Avenue and Old Santa Fe Trail in the 1950s. Kaune Elementary School is named for Alfred, who was member of the Santa Fe school board in the 1940s.

The four brothers worked hard to make sure their stores stood out from their competition. "The Washington Avenue store had a bakery in the basement, which was incredible. You just can't find bakeries like that nowadays," Julie Kaune says.

Prior to joining the family business, Julie Kaune worked at Boyles Flower Shop and Spitz Jewelers on the Plaza, so she knew how to work with the public. However, she was challenged in 1971 when she bought the store on Old Santa Fe Trail from her father. As Julie Kaune explains, "There weren't any women in the grocery business when I started out. I didn't know anything about being a boss, and I had 14 people working for me. My father and his brothers thought that I would go broke. I was scared to death, but I prayed to the good Lord to help me, and he did."

From 1971 to 1982, Julie Kaune left her indelible mark on the business started by her grandfather. In her retirement, she spends time with her two nephews and a niece, and their children. She used to play a lot of golf but now spends more time with her two dachshunds. "When I was in my 20s, I went to a party at a friend's house, and she had an adorable black dachshund, and I fell in love. I've owned six dachshunds since then," she says.

Looking back, Kaune is proud of what she accomplished as a woman in the grocery business and the fact that the store bearing her family's name is still on Old Santa Fe Trail, especially since the current owner is also a woman.

Ana Pacheco is the founder and publisher of La Herencia, a culture and history magazine (www.herencia.com, 505-474-2800). Her weekly tribute to our community elders appears every Tuesday.