ALEXANDRIA, Minn. – Minnesotans know what it’s like to cry for a lost department store.
So many have come and gone over the years. Dayton’s. Donaldson’s. Sears. Filene’s Basement.
But there may be no grief like that of a small town for its long-lost Herberger’s.
Herberger’s was small-town Minnesota’s Dayton’s.
Six years after Herberger’s closed its doors, Alexandria is still mourning its loss. Back in the day, Herberger’s would have been swarming with customers on the Black Friday weekend, drawn in by the store’s coupons and its array of apparel and gifts.
Alexandria wasn’t a huge city, but Herberger’s helped make it a real shopping destination for middle-class families who lived within 30 miles or so.
“I miss them, terribly,” said Sue Sarberg, a retired school secretary as she walking through the Viking Plaza Mall in Alexandria, which Herberger’s once anchored along with JCPenney and Dunham’s. Sarberg could count on Herberger’s if she needed a nice dress for a wedding or a decent pair of slacks for her husband. You could run in there after work any day of the week.
Now she drives more than an hour each way to shop in St. Cloud, which complicates things if she has to make returns.