Store closings in North Mpls a hardship for many

February will see the closing of two stores in North Minneapolis—the Aldi on Lowry and Penn closed Sunday, Feb. 12, and the Walgreens on Broadway and North Lyndale is closing next week on Feb. 22. 

“ALDI has made the difficult decision to close our store at 3120 Penn Avenue N. in Minneapolis due to the inability to renovate the store to accommodate our larger product range and our current lease term expiring,” said an Aldi spokesperson in an email to MSR. “We will continue to proudly serve the residents of Minneapolis at our other area stores, including our store at 5620 Broadway Avenue, just a few miles from this location, as well as five other ALDI stores within a 15-minute drive of this location. We thank our customers for their years of loyalty at this location and look forward to seeing them in nearby stores soon.”

Walgreens did not give an official explanation for the store’s closure. 

Ita E, who declined to give his full last name, doubted the explanation. Although he said he did not know the real reason behind the closure, he speculated it could have to do with the profit margin.

“I guess they have to do what they have to do,” Ita said. “You would think the city and the store would put in more effort to keep the store here. Because I feel if it was in a different location, it would be little extra effort to keep the store [in the neighborhood].”

Ita said he will now have to go to the Aldi location in Crystal for groceries.

Khalid Mohamed has been shopping at the now-closed Aldi since he moved to Minneapolis six years ago. He described the closing of the store as “tough,” especially following the closure of the Holiday gas station nearest to him. He estimated the length of his drive to the grocery store increasing from 10 to 30 minutes after the store’s closure.

“It’s the only reason we’re able to buy food for a couple meals at a time because it’s so close,” Mohamed said. “If it were further, we’d have to buy bulk all the time, which is a lot more expensive than what we’re doing right now.”

Mohamed also lamented losing access to Aldi’s lower prices, saying it got him through a part of the pandemic when he lost his job. Other shoppers mentioned that the prices at Aldi were generally more affordable than the remaining options.

Mohamed’s mother also gets medications from the Walgreens that’s closing later this month. He said his mother got her prescriptions through GoodRx, which had a deal to offer cheaper medications through Walgreens. Mohamed is unsure where his mother will get her medication now and worries it will be more expensive when they find a new provider. 

Kashaya Manson, a St. Cloud resident, shops for her mom, Kim, when she visits her in North Minneapolis. Kim lives down the street from the shuttered Aldi and shops there every day when Manson is not around.

“I can’t imagine where my family or anybody else will be able to go,” Manson said. “I know a lot of people that walk to the store and don’t have a way to get to any other store.”

The Aldi store is located one block from the rapid transit C-Line.

“People that don’t have transportation don’t really have a way to get all the way to the other side of [North] Minneapolis for Cub Foods or going all the way to Brooklyn Center. This is the only store that’s in this area,” said Manson.

Manson says she may occasionally have to drive all the way from St. Cloud to bring her mother to a store further out to shop for food but was unsure what she would do on the days when she could not make the drive.

“She’s gonna have to go to the corner store, I guess,” Manson said. “A lot of people aren’t gonna have food with [Aldi] closing.”

According to the USDA’s most recent classifications from 2019, the now-closed Aldi is within eight blocks of the nearest land tract that is classified as a food desert. Four different tracts in North Minneapolis and Near North are classified as food deserts. With the closing of Aldi, North Minneapolis neighborhoods that have few food shopping options will have even fewer.  

“I hope they [Aldi] take it into consideration that a lot of families will be impacted by the store closing,” Manson said.

Senator Tina Smith condemned the closure of Aldi. “One-fifth of Black households live in a food desert and North Minneapolis has already been dealing with a shortage of grocery stores,” said Sen. Smith. “Food insecurity has significant consequences, ranging from impeding the healthy development of children to an increased risk of chronic illnesses. The closing of this Aldi location is draining a basic need from a community that has already been in need.”

 The Aldi Twitter account posted a tweet asking for suggestions for new locations. Many people on Twitter replied that the company should open a new store in Minneapolis or keep the current one open. The account did not reply to any tweets about North Minneapolis outside of saying they would keep North Minneapolis “in mind.” That tweet has since been deleted. 

Remaining grocery options in North Minneapolis are the Cub Foods on Broadway and several smaller local stores.