Okie Almanac

Sweis Specialty Foods Keeps 75 Years of Grocery Life Going at NW 30th and May

Colorful 10 mg THC beverage cans displayed inside Sweis Foods grocery market
Sweis Specialty Foods in Oklahoma City is a family-owned neighborhood grocery at 3106 N May Ave with groceries, produce, dairy and a meat department, plus a corner grocery history that reaches back to Humpty-Dumpty in 1950.

I’ve been shopping at the little grocery store at NW 30th and May for years. For most of that time, I knew it as Eley’s Foods. Now the sign says Sweis Specialty Foods, but the more I looked into that corner, the more I realized the name change is just the latest chapter in a much longer Oklahoma City grocery story.

People have been buying groceries at NW 30th and May since at least 1950.

That matters more than it might sound like at first. Oklahoma City used to have a lot more neighborhood grocery stores. Then the business got bigger, the boxes got bigger, and a lot of the smaller places disappeared into memory, redevelopment, or parking lots. Somehow, this store at 3106 N May Ave has kept going.

It has changed names. It has changed owners. But it has not turned into another national chain.

Exterior of Sweis Foods grocery market in Oklahoma City with signs for meat, produce, beer, wine, and groceries
Sweis Foods is a locally owned Oklahoma City grocery market with meat, produce, beer, wine, and everyday grocery staples.

From Humpty-Dumpty to Eley’s to Sweis

The grocery history here goes back to a Humpty-Dumpty Super Market that opened at NW 30th and May in 1950. A newspaper ad from that year pitched the location as a modern grocery stop, with about 11,500 square feet of air-conditioned shopping space and off-street parking.

Poster inside Sweis Foods promoting American beef born and raised in the USA
A sign inside Sweis Foods highlights the store’s focus on American beef.
Jaws-themed wine bottles and specialty bottles displayed inside Sweis Foods
The store’s wine displays include themed bottles and seasonal specialty finds.
Long soda aisle inside Sweis Foods stocked with Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, and other soft drinks
Sweis Foods stocks long aisles of everyday drinks and pantry staples.

That was not a small brag in 1950.

Humpty-Dumpty also carries a very Oklahoma connection. The chain was owned by Sylvan Goldman, the Oklahoma City grocery operator credited with inventing the modern shopping cart in 1936. To be clear, this particular store was not where the cart was invented. But the corner did start its grocery life under the same Oklahoma chain tied to one of the biggest everyday inventions in American shopping.

Historical grocery records show Humpty-Dumpty at this N May location for years, then Bestyet by the 1970s and 1980s. Later, the store became Eley’s Bestyet, then Eley’s Foods.

That’s the version I remember best.

Eley’s had the kind of neighborhood grocery reputation you do not really manufacture. It was small enough to get in and out without committing half your afternoon. People knew the store. The meat department had a following. If you needed a butcher counter, special cuts, or just a more human grocery stop than a 180,000-square-foot supercenter, Eley’s made sense.

That is why I kept going back.

Butcher Shop sign hanging above the meat counter inside Sweis Foods in Oklahoma City
Inside Sweis Foods, the butcher shop area points to the market’s emphasis on fresh meat.

What Sweis Is Now

Today, the store operates as Sweis Specialty Foods. The current version still sells everyday groceries, produce, dairy and specialty foods, with a meat department carrying beef, pork and chicken. The store describes itself as family-owned, and that part is important here.

Produce section inside Sweis Foods with bananas, apples, vegetables, and pumpkins
The produce section adds fresh fruit and vegetables to the market’s meat and grocery offerings.
Sweis Foods packaged nuts including slivered almonds and in-shell almonds on grocery shelves
Store-labeled nuts and pantry items are part of the grocery selection at Sweis Foods.
Packaged Black Canyon Angus beef in the meat case at Sweis Foods in Oklahoma City
The meat case at Sweis Foods features American Angus beef, including packages of ground beef.
Beer and wine section inside Sweis Foods with refrigerated beer, wine bottles, and neon signs
The market also has a beer and wine section with refrigerated options and recognizable brands.

This corner could have easily become something generic. Instead, it stayed local.

The Sweis name has its own Oklahoma food history, too. The family has been connected to Oklahoma food since the 1970s through pita, Mediterranean recipes and related food businesses. So while the sign changed from Eley’s to Sweis, this did not become some out-of-town corporate grocery experiment dropped onto N May.

It stayed in the hands of people with Oklahoma food roots.

On my visit, the thing that hit me was not that the store is fancy. It is not trying to be. It still feels like a practical neighborhood grocery store, with aisles you can actually understand, a real meat case, and the kind of scale that lets you pick up dinner without feeling like you need a map and a recovery plan.

There is a place for the giant stores. I shop at them, too. But there is also something valuable about a grocery store where the parking lot, the front door, the meat counter and the checkout all still feel like they belong to the neighborhood around them.

That is getting rarer in Oklahoma City.

More than 75 years after that Humpty-Dumpty opened at NW 30th and May, people are still pushing carts through the same corner. The names have changed from Humpty-Dumpty to Bestyet to Eley’s to Sweis, but the basic purpose has held steady.

Milk. Meat. Produce. Dinner. A quick stop on the way home.

I think that is worth noticing before places like this are only something people talk about after they are gone.

And considering this corner traces back to the Oklahoma grocery chain tied to the invention of the shopping cart, grabbing one at Sweis and filling it up feels pretty appropriate.

Details

  • Address: 3106 N May Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73112
  • Phone: (405) 942-2113
  • Hours: Open daily, 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM
  • Website: https://sweisfoods.com/

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