Paper bags at Lunds are imprinted with the words "thank you" in a dozen languages. That is just one of the innovative ideas Patricia Lund came up with to add a personal touch to customers' grocery-shopping experiences.
Lund, of Edina, was never short on ideas during a four-decade career in which she rose from switchboard operator to senior vice president of consumer relations and advertising. She was responsible for recipe cards to help shoppers create home meals and for providing one-on-one advice on party planning.
Her signature weekly newspaper advertisements weaving history, literature, Bible quotes and food tips generated bags of fan mail from appreciative customers.
She died Jan. 24 at age 96.
"She wrote such beautiful copy," said Jack Farrell, president of local wine retailer Haskell's. "I ran into an English professor who said she always used her ads for English class because they were so succinct and used descriptive words. She was very talented and creative. She wanted Lunds to stand apart, and it did."
In fact, it was her idea to call the supermarket Lunds. In 1964, Russell T. Lund was a partner in a company that ran the former Hove's store on Lake Street. When the store lost its lease and the partnership dissolved, it was Pat who encouraged him to put his name on it, said Tres Lund, current chairman and CEO.
Born in 1912 in Hallock, Minn., she began her career at the grocery in 1940 just after Russell Lund opened the Lake Street location. As a business school student, she answered phones on the switchboard one day a week. She eventually went full time at a salary of $75 a week.
When she rose to the rank of advertising copy writer, she started writing the distinctive Lunds advertisements chock full of cooking suggestions, many of which appeared in the Star Tribune.
