Meet Our Team
How We Got Here - A short video 40 plus years in the making.
Jan and Neal Peters
Great Grandfather Jan Peters was a grocer before grocery stores existed. From Jan's small family shop in Badehoevedorp, Holland our Grandfather Neal learned the trade as a boy from his father during the 1940’s.
By bike and by foot orders had to be gathered from the town's customers in person. Back to the store Neal would take the orders, assemble them, pack them onto his specially kitted bike and then hand deliver them many times a day.
In the mid 1950’s
Neal’s enterprising spirit brought him to West Michigan where he and his wife Ann settled as did many other Dutch immigrants. Neal worked hard at variety of jobs which involved putting his Holland experiences to use selling and delivering food.
In 1976 the dream of owning and operating his own store came true when he purchased Van’s Dutch Store on Grandville Avenue in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He quickly grew the business seeking out every product his customers asked for.
Selling items by catalogs and mail also became a big part of the family's business and later wholesaling those items to other stores when Ed, his eldest son came into the business in 1977.
The 1980's
The 80's brought more growth and second store was added a few miles away in Jenison Michigan.
Then In 1988 the whole business moved again to 36th street in Wyoming, Michigan where there was more room to incorporate all aspects of the business under one roof. This included a retail store, offices and a large warehouse. As All parts of the business continued to grow Neal's youngest son Ernie came aboard.
The 1990's
Once again the business needed more room and moved to Grandville, Michigan. This new location more than doubled the square footage of the warehouse, offices, and retail store.
Along the way the business name evolved from Van’s Dutch Store to Van’s Dutch Imports, then to Van’s Importing. In 1995, the same year Neal would retire the wholesale business name finally became
Peters Imports and the retail business became know as Peters Imports Marketplace
The Early 2000's
In 2002 the retail store was moved to its own very large location and named deReuze Gourmet Market.
DeReuze roughly translates to "The Giant" and the stores selection of Dutch and gourmet foods reflected this. This new store even featured a full service deli and coffee shop.
2013 - Present Day
In September 2013 the retail store moved only a ½ mile away to it's current location at 4499 Ivanrest. The name was adjusted slightly to Peters Gourmet Market.
Through all these changes, we still import the popular Dutch products which you will find in store, on our web site and still in our "mail order" catalog. We offer the largest selection of cheeses from Holland, stock a large variety of micro and import beers ,excellent wines, 100’s of chocolates, candies, and licorice,bulk coffee, tea, spices, international grocery and charcuterie. We do corporate gifts, gift baskets, fund raising programs and we continue to serve our communities through the chamber of commerce, town events, sponsoring sports teams, and supporting Christian education.
Our staff
It's “all in the family!” Dividing responsibilities between brothers Ed and Ernie, Ed’s children Kristina , Sara, Dan and son in law Ben along with a small staff of dedicated and caring people, we continue the tradition that began decades ago of putting the customer first.
As Neal puts it “de klant is Koning” – the customer is king.
We thank you for your loyal support and taking the time to learn about us, we promise our best for many years to come.
Sincerely,
The Peters Family