Minneapolis' first co-op closing down

A pioneering co-op that was among the first in Minneapolis to sell natural and organic food will close next month, a victim of dwindling sales, its board of directors said Thursday.

The North Country Co-op, at 1929 S. Fifth St., near the University of Minnesota's West Bank campus, will end its 37-year-run on Nov. 4.

"While it is sad to see it close, we agreed it was the right time," said board president Marvin Loxterkamp in a statement. The store has 1,000 active members.

"I'm bummed," said frequent customer Heather Bauer, 20, carrying a bag of milk and apples from the store.

Joseph Hernandez, 27, stops in at least twice a day. "I don't know why people don't come in more often," he said.

They do, but the absence of big weekly shoppers hurt sales, said Peter Grisé, longtime deli and operations manager.

The store hoped to engineer a turnaround with the hire this summer of Patrick Werle as general manager.

The closure comes as a rare failure among the city's natural and organic food stores. The Seward Co-op Grocery & Deli on Franklin Avenue has come within $25,000 of its $1.2 million fundraising goal to expand and relocate a few blocks down the street. The Wedge Co-op just announced unprecedented plans to purchase an organic farm.

And the National Cooperative Grocers Association usually frames the Twin Cities as a food co-op boomtown.

But the downtown supermarket scene has seen new competition in recent years from private discount store Aldi's on Franklin Avenue and Lunds, which opened a location in southeast Minneapolis.

"All these little nibbles started adding up," North Country's Grisé concluded.