Small-town store selling American goods expanding to Saskatoon

You don’t have to travel all the way to the U.S.A. to try American snacks.

A Watrous business selling American goods and ice cream is expanding, with a second location coming to Saskatoon.

“Me and my wife travel to the U.S. all the time,” said Kelvin Fellner, the co-owner of Kelvin’s Perk. “We used to bring all this stuff back for ourselves, just as a treat.”

After getting the space for their ice cream shop, it dawned on Fellner and his wife that they wanted to share their love of American snacks with the rest of the town.

Kelvin’s Perk became known not only for its ice cream, but for bringing in a variety of new flavours of soda and candy from the States.

“The things that go really fast are soda pop and the cake mix,” said Fellner. “We’re rotating about 250 cases of soda pop a week.”

The name Kelvin’s Perk is an homage to the TV show ‘Friends’ and the coffee shop Central Perk that the characters frequent.

(Kelvin’s Perk/ Facebook)

Fellner calls himself the biggest ‘Friends’ fan in the entire world.

“I’ve got just about 650 pieces of ‘Friends’ memorabilia at my house along with four ‘Friends’ tattoos on my body,” said Fellner.

The inside of Kelvin’s Perk has around 20 ‘Friends’ posters and signs hung up around the business.

Kelvin’s Perk is a family business, run mainly by Fellner, along with his wife and his two children.

But it’s mainly Fellner who makes the drive at least once a week or more to purchase American treats. He said he usually goes to North Dakota or Montana, and that means Fellner drives a minimum of 14 hours every week to get his hands on new treats for the store.

“I’m not going to lie, everything that we bring sells out,” said Fellner.

Kelvin’s Perk opened in April of 2022. At first, Fellner said he thought the buzz of excitement for his products was only temporary.

“I knew it would be busy for the first six months until everyone kind of got their little fix,” said Fellner.

But the popularity of the business lasted much longer than that.

The demand for Fellner’s products was so large that he began doing a free delivery service to sell his products in Saskatoon. Every week Fellner said he meets his clients at a designated meeting place in the city to bring them a new supply of their favourite American treats.

“It’s actually heartwarming to talk to these people on the phone and on social media,” Fellner said.

“Then when you get to meet them, we’ve had quite a few who have actually become good friends.”

Fellner said his most popular products are the sodas, specifically Vanilla Coke and a variety of Mountain Dew flavours.

Mountain Dew flavours like fruitcake and passion fruit were big hits, said Fellner. People also like the special holiday flavours of Mountain Dew put out around Halloween or Christmas.

The Dolly Parton cake mix is something else people buy a lot of, said Fellner.

The Saskatoon location has a tentative start date of July 17, and will be located on Miller Avenue.