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 shut our store at 3120 Penn Avenue N. in Minneapolis attributable to the lack to renovate the shop to accommodate our larger product range and our current lease term expiring,” said an Aldi spokesperson in an email to MSR. “We’ll proceed to proudly serve the residents of Minneapolis at our other area stores, including our store at 5620 Broadway Avenue, just a number of miles from this location, in addition to five other ALDI stores inside a 15-minute drive of this location. We thank our customers for his or her years of loyalty at this location and look ahead to seeing them in nearby stores soon.”

Walgreens didn’t give an official explanation for the shop’s closure. 

Ita E, who declined to present his full last name, doubted the reason. Although he said he didn’t know the actual reason behind the closure, he speculated it could should do with the profit margin.

“I assume they should do what they should do,” Ita said. “You’d think the town and the shop would put in additional effort to maintain the shop here. Because I feel if it was in a special location, it might be little extra effort to maintain the shop [in the neighborhood].”

Ita said he’ll now should go to the Aldi location in Crystal for groceries.

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

“It’s the one reason we’re capable of buy food for a pair meals at a time since it’s so close,” Mohamed said. “If it were further, we’d should buy bulk on a regular basis, which is lots dearer than what we’re doing at once.”

Mohamed also lamented losing access to Aldi’s lower prices, saying it got him through an element of the pandemic when he lost his job. Other shoppers mentioned that the costs at Aldi were generally more cost-effective 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 supply cheaper medications through Walgreens. Mohamed is unsure where his mother will get her medication now and worries it is going to be dearer after they discover a latest provider. 

Kashaya Manson, a St. Cloud resident, shops for her mom, Kim, when she visits her in North Minneapolis. Kim lives down the road from the shuttered Aldi and shops there on daily basis when Manson just isn’t around.

“I can’t imagine where my family or anybody else will give you the chance to go,” Manson said. “I do know numerous people who walk to the shop and don’t have a option to get to another store.”

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

“Those who don’t have transportation don’t really have a option to get all of the option to the opposite side of [North] Minneapolis for Cub Foods or going all of the option to Brooklyn Center. That is the one store that’s on this area,” said Manson.

Manson says she may occasionally should drive all the best way from St. Cloud to bring her mother to a store further out to buy food but was unsure what she would do on the times when she couldn’t make the drive.

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

In accordance with the USDA’s most up-to-date classifications from 2019, the now-closed Aldi is inside eight blocks of the closest land tract that is classed as a food desert. 4 different tracts in North Minneapolis and Near North are classified as food deserts. With the closing of Aldi, North Minneapolis neighborhoods which have few food shopping options may have even fewer.  

“I hope they [Aldi] take it into consideration that numerous families will likely be impacted by the shop 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 coping with a shortage of grocery stores,” said Sen. Smith. “Food insecurity has significant consequences, starting from impeding the healthy development of kids 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 brand spanking new locations. Many individuals on Twitter replied that the corporate should open a brand new store in Minneapolis or keep the present one open. The account didn’t reply to any tweets about North Minneapolis outside of claiming they might 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 other smaller local stores.