Sioux City / Iowa / United States
A history of Bomgaars begins with William H. Bomgaars in the small town of Middleburg, Iowa, at the age of 18, when he was operating a general store. In 1931, he borrowed $125 on his Army insurance to purchase a Model A Ford and started out to build his own general automotive parts store. In 1944, the operation had expanded to the point where it was moved to its first downtown location in Sioux City, Iowa. In 1952, Bill heard of the practice of sending fleet cards to farmers entitling them to discounts. Thus, Bomgaars instituted the Mid-States Buying Group and he went into the farm fleet business as well. Expansion began taking place in the form of opening branch stores with the first one was in Yankton, S.D., in 1956.Bomgaars has more than 35 retail stores that employ approximately 1,000 employees in Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota.
