Dubuque Iowa's grain-fed beef brought fame and fortune to a local Ensley grocery store when the Barnes family opened the Barnes Curb Market in 1947. Grady Barnes opened the first grocery store in the Ensley community, which showed the first sign of economic growth in the area. He had originally bought a 24x36 shed of a curb market on a lot sold by the locally renowned T.T. Wentworth and began working 18-hour days expanding it.

The land Barnes bought consisted of 5 lots that were referred to as "The First Addition to Ensley" on the paperwork. In later years, Barnes rented four other buildings in locations around Pensacola and Pace, FL that also became branches of the grocery store. The store originally opened on Davis Highway but then moved to a small wire building in Ensley that stayed open 24 hours. It was one of the first 24-hour grocery stores with a sawdust floor and a concrete slab housed onto the back where the Barnes family lived. The community took advantage of the 24-hour service, as some late nights Barnes would sell orders totaling at $130. The store became popular with the locals and even people outside of the community once word spread about the different types of meats from Iowa they sold every week. Some packing houses had good meat, but if meat came from the west it was grain-fed and good quality. If it came from the east side, it was grass fed and would turn black.

The Barnes Curb Market also sold a variety of goods besides groceries, such as baked goods from a relative who owned a bakery and would bring baked goods to sell behind the counter. Today, the Barnes grocery store is still under ownership of the Barnes family and functioning as a feed store for the Ensley community.