Rainbow begins closing sales at two more stores

Two more Rainbow Foods stores started their going-out-of-business sales this week.

The Minneapolis store at 2919 26th Av. S. and the West St. Paul store at 1660 S. Robert St. have all grocery items discounted 25 percent. All nonfood items such as detergent and toothpaste are marked down 50 percent.

Both stores are expected to close Nov. 9 but may close earlier if the shelves are bare.

The entire produce section is cleared at both stores, leaving only a few seed balls and bottles of salad dressing. The meat and dairy departments are picked over too. But most grocery and personal hygiene aisles still had plenty to choose from.

Karen Gunter of Champlin, who blogs about extreme couponing at www.creativecouponing.com and shopped the Rainbow store closings earlier this summer, said that many of the shelves were bare two weeks into the closing sale when Roundy's closed other stores. By the time discounts started at 50 percent or 70 percent, the stores were "nearly empty shells," she said.

An employee at the West St. Paul store said shoppers shouldn't assume that discounts will eventually increase to 50 or 70 percent in Minneapolis or West St. Paul. They're locally owned by Jerry's Enterprises, not Milwaukee-based Roundy's. Whatever items aren't sold before Nov. 9 can be reallocated to other stores owned by Jerry's.

The two stores closing are near Cub stores that are also run by Jerry's.

Nearly half of the other 27 Rainbow stores were sold to Supervalu and Lunds/Byerly's, which renamed their locations. Other stores have already closed.

John Ewoldt • 612-673-7633