FROM PAGE 1 new car dealership location composed as it is of four main departments: Service, Sales, Parts, and the Body Shop. The Service department is located in and around the former Shopko clothing section, while the Parts department is located in the building’s center. The Body Shop is located in the former department store’s east side, and Sales is located where the magazines, pharmacy and cash registers used to be. Shopko stores declared bankruptcy in January 2019, with the site in Stanley’s East Business Park then closing briefly and sitting vacant for a time, until Courtesy Ford of Thorp with new owners expressed interest in converting the old retail site and its parking lot into a car dealership, complete with a view of/from Highway 29 just to the south. First opening as a local business in Thorp, Wisconsin almost 36 years ago back in the late summer of 1984 (a souvenir paper from that time is framed at the new location), the new Courtesy Ford location has seven new vehicle lifts, along with some from its old store, Eisold said. Also included are an employee breakroom along wth a soda machine in the sales area, making sure employees and customers are taken care of. There’s more as well, though.

“The total air exchange in here is new every 15 minutes,” she added as well in reference to the building as a whole. With some additional space add-ons being made by Courtesy to the front and side of the old Shopko building, departments in the retail store turned car dealership are separated by new concrete block walls. Eisold said as part of the new location that Courtesy was also expanding its sales and service staff. So what if staff need a specific part or supply?

For that there’s the Parts department, well stocked among other needs with bottles of oil and aerosol cans, but also vehicle air filters. A secure back entry with chain link fence, meanwhile, allows for parts deliveries to be made after store hours while also controlling access to the larger building. As to the on-site body shop, this also has a good amount of space, though not quite the same square footage as the Service Department, taken on a rough estimate. Courtesy’s Service department is shaped like a rectangle and runs the length of the building from south to north, while the body shop area is decidedly more box shaped, though still large. But with Courtesy Ford now five miles down the road from its old location in Thorp, what’s to become of the old site? Purchased by Kwik Trip, Eisold shared of potential future developments in the town that bills itself as “A Place To Belong.” The site of Courtesy in Thorp then, may not sit empty for long.

The lot at Courtesy Ford as it appeared on opening day, March 1. With cars, trucks, and more, it’s worth a stop, located at 409 Junction Avenue off Highway X. Clockwise from top left below are the Sales floor, Service Center, Parts Department, and Body Shop. Staff photos.