PROGRESS: DSG moves into the former South Sioux City Walmart

Dakota Supply Group (DSG) opened a new location at 2727 Cornhusker Drive in March 2023. The 65,000-square-foot building was formerly home to a Walmart.

The Plymouth, Minnesota-based DSG is a full-service distributor of electrical, plumbing and HVAC supplies. DSG's customers are primarily contractors, businesses and municipalities.

The company has had a long history in the Midwest, dating back to the late 1800s, when W.A. Roosevelt founded it as Fargo Plumbing in Fargo, North Dakota.

The company began offering electrical supplies in the early 20th century; it changed its name to Dakota Electrical Supply Co. in the 1940s before becoming DSG in 2001.

Currently, the employee-owned DSG operates in Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. 

DSG marketing director Penny Hanson was especially happy with the South Sioux City location.

"For us, it's very exciting, because it's a new state for us to go into," she said. "We had not been in Nebraska before."

The interior of the building is mostly a vast warehouse with racks of products while offices were situated up front.

Walmart left the South Sioux City building in 2006, when the much larger Walmart Superstore opened at 1601 Cornhusker Drive The retail giant first opened its doors at 2727 Cornhusker Drive in the summer of 1989.

During the 17 years the building sat vacant, it was used for storage.

In 2022, DSG acquired Brown Supply Company, a dealer in underground water and sewer pipes and fittings, fire hydrants, equipment and other waterworks products.

That deal included Brown Supply Company's location, along Highway 75 in Sioux City. That brought DSG into Iowa for the first time.