Bob and Cherri Klaumann bid farewell to Lake Stop Grocery

After more than 50 years in the family, Bob and Cherri Klaumann have sold Lake Stop Grocery, the unofficial entrance to Hagg Lake. Their sale of the business and property ended a multigenerational family business that's greeted millworkers, anglers, picnickers, and the local community for more than five decades.

"We just want to thank the community," Bob said.

"The last day was the hardest," Cherri said. They were driving through New Mexico on their way to their home in Texas when they spoke to this newspaper.

Before it was Henry Hagg Lake, it was Scoggins Valley, and to get there, you passed through the Seghers community. There sits what eventually became Lake Stop Grocery.

Before it was a grocery store, it served as a car garage and gas station known as Williams' Garage. As Scoggins Valley was undergoing the transformation into today's Henry Hagg Lake in the early 70s, the location was turned into a grocery store between 1972 and 1973 by owner Ken Williams, Bob said.

Bob was already working there under Williams in 1973 before his parents bought it.

"Kenny didn't want any part of the grocery store after he built one," Bob said.

According to Bob, the business was purchased in August 1973 by Bob's parents, Dale and Mary Lou Klaumann, and until this year, the business, and later the property, have been under the Klaumann name ever since. Lake Stop Grocery was officially incorporated in 1975, Bob said.

Bob, 71, and Cherri, 66, have been married for 47 years, and together for 50. Bob and Cherri, both Forest Grove-area residents at the time, met at Lake Stop "over an ice cream cooler" Cherri said.

Dale and Mary Lou Klaumann ran the shop with Bob and his siblings' help until 1989, when Bob and Cherri bought the business from his parents.

"I was a store manager for Safeway, Cherri was the deli manager," Bob said. He quit, took the store over, and Cherri joined about a year later.

They added a deli, and expanded the fishing tackle selection and more as they took over.

"Getting to know people, they became friends, not only customers. And that's basically the whole feeling of our business, to make it feel like a home for our customers," Bob said.

He said the saddest part about leaving was no longer seeing their customers every day.

"We just want to thank them all," Bob said.

A Hagg Lake community Christmas tradition

Cherri started giving Christmas boxes to store vendors in 1989 as a thank-you gift, and then a regular customer asked for a box, too. It grew from there, becoming a community-wide thank you tradition for the support of their store.

Cherri said the gift boxes were only possible with the help of local kids who helped Cherri put the boxes together every year.

"I just totally want to give a big shout-out, thank you," Cherri said.

Help was necessary: The boxes from the first year grew into about 400 boxes by their final year at the store.

"I made a list. I checked it twice. It got a little crazy," Cherri said.

Groups of children would come to the store and help assemble the boxes.

"They look forward to their little Christmas boxes," Cherri said. She said on their last day in February, a mother brought some of the kids to Lake Stop Grocery who had helped assemble her last set of boxes in 2024.

"It just touched my heart," Cherri said.

It wasn't the only time the community helped out.

It's since been fixed, but in the early days, Lake Stop Grocery's placement at the bottom of a hill saw floodwater after heavy rains cascade into the back of the store.

"It would run right in the back of the store and through the store," Cherri said.

Customers stopping in for a morning coffee would see Cherri using a shop vac to get the water out.

"They would go home and grab their shop vacs, they would get their sump pumps, and we would fix the store," Cherri added.

What's next for the store

In a March 3 interview at the store, Goldy Singh said changes were coming.

Along with his brothers, Sunny and JP Singh, he has added the store to a growing chain of modern convenience stores in Salem, Amity, Independence, and Forest Grove where two convenience stores (7 Star Convenience Store #2, east of Safeway near the giant flag; 7 Star Convenience Store #6, across from Pacific University at the corner of Main Street and 23rd Ave) are already bearing the 7 Star brand.

"Our plans are to remodel this store, to get a big beer cave and beer cooler," Singh said.

Planned changes include extended hours, a larger deli selection featuring chicken and ICEE frozen drinks, and an expanded fishing supplies section for Hagg Lake visitors.

In a return to the past, a gas station is planned, which will have options for boaters as well.

"A lot of people, they are asking for non-ethanol for their boats," Singh said.

After a brief interruption, Hagg Lake parking passes are once again available at the location, Washington County Parks said.

More ideas are planned, among them, expanded outdoor seating for visitors to enjoy a meal they've just purchased.

"We know how to work in small towns," Singh said, "We're going to be always open to the people living close by, whatever they need, y'know, we can add to our store so they don't have to drive all the way to Forest Grove for the small, small things," he said.

The store is located at 8015 SW Old Highway 47.

This story has been updated to spell JP Singh's name correctly.