Why St. Paul neighbors are so concerned about Midway’s latest store closure

Shoppers who have relied on the Cub Foods in Midway for decades are disappointed, but hardly surprised, that the store is closing.

For months, customers have complained that the St. Paul store had few shopping carts and baskets, and too many people panhandling outside the store. They witnessed shoplifting and watched the store close self-checkout lanes.

Some feel the closure is a continuation of a longer pattern of neglect in the neighborhood.

“They are just tearing up the poor Midway,” Janice Atkinson, a longtime resident, said on her way into the store on Tuesday.

“We are saddened by Cub’s decision to close its Midway store — a longtime community resource," Mayor Melvin Carter said in a statement late Monday.

In a statement, Cub said they are investing in other stores, noting a remodeled store in Burnsville.

“We know the impact our stores have for the people who work in, shop in, and live in our communities,” the statement read. “Like any food retailer, we’re constantly working to optimize our footprint.”

“I’ve been in the community a long time, and Cub has been a great store to us,” shopper JoeAnn Rembert said on her way into Cub.

But it has been clearly struggling for months, patrons said Tuesday.

“It seemed like they gave up a while ago,” said Karen Shrake. She worried what the loss of another business would mean for St. Paul’s already high property taxes.

City leaders said they tried to help Cub stay open.

Carter said St. Paul police officials met with Cub leadership to address shoplifting and loitering around the store and in the parking lot.

But Carter said Cub stopped engaging.

“While we were hopeful about our progress,” Carter’s statement said, “we became acutely concerned after Cub leadership recently failed to attend a scheduled meeting with the Mayor’s Office.”

The loss of Cub is just the latest in a line of closed businesses in the area.

The construction of Allianz Field across Pascal Street meant the demolition of the Rainbow Foods supermarket and other businesses on University and Snelling Avenue, including a liquor store, a beauty supply shop and a bowling alley.

“There’s ways of keeping the stadium, and keeping things for people to do,” Atkinson said.

A Walmart across the parking lot closed and was replaced by a furniture store that has also closed.

Even the McDonald’s is gone, Atkinson observed, torn down to make way for a hotel near the soccer stadium.

The development has felt like taking things out of the neighborhood, Atkinson said, not an investment in amenities residents want near their homes.

Minneapolis developer Kraus-Anderson owns the building that holds Cub and other businesses in the strip, and Bowie said the city is “at the table” to make a plan for the site with the developer.

There are no plans yet to redevelop the site or install another grocery store in Cub’s place.

Shoppers said they could run their errands at nearby a Target, Aldi or Sun Foods, but Cub had the convenience of a full supermarket, a pharmacy and a money-order window.

City leaders are bullish on the United Village development being built near Cub. But shoppers wondered if the new buildings and businesses would really benefit the neighborhood.