When a new store comes to Apple Valley, two miles from another similarly sized store, residents from surrounding areas seem to feel that it’s the second coming and a sign that the stars are aligned properly to make Apple Valley the next Woodbury. Fortunately, that blind support of corporations isn’t followed quite as closely in neighboring Eagan which has a group of residents quite upset over the newly planned addition of the smallest Cub Foods store in the metro as an anchor to the Diffley Marketplace.
Planned as some sort of suburban miniaturized “unique neighborhood-friendly” design, it will be replacing what was once planned as a “Rademacher’s Fresh Market” (which is also owned by Cub Foods’ parent company SuperValu) and will include a TCF Bank and an unnecessary pharmacy as there is already a Walgreens nearby. According to an article in the Pioneer Press about the new Cub Foods in Eagan, this particular store is unique because they are going to include tile floors, lower ceilings, softer lighting and no in-store storage areas towering above shoppers’ heads.
The concerned neighbors fear for their children’s safety with the increased traffic that will occur because of the entire development, especially now that the Cub Foods brand name will be even more likely to attract traffic now that the name has changed from something less familiar to Eagan residents. While I do not fall prey to the “save our children” rhetoric, I am glad that this particular group of residents has been fighting the development for the last three years unlike Apple Valley residents which cheered on Target and even encouraged them to put in a new SuperTarget instead of a plain old boring Target next to their million dollar homes on undersized lots.
Apparently, because of delays the developer sued the city in 2006 and an eventual agreement was reached causing the developer to put aside $20,000 in a “pedestrian safety fund” which would be used to create sidewalks or a trail near the new development. Now, there is nothing more friendly than a trail leading from a neighborhood straight to a commercial development. Mmmmm, self-serving safety actions supported by city government.
Obviously, if the space is so limited that a full-sized Cub could not be supported why is the city even bothering to allow yet another grocery store to go in there? They should listen to their citizens and not the greedy desire of a developer and continue on happily without this new and unnecessary grocery store.
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May 6th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
To be blunt, I couldn’t disagree more. What cities need are more grocery stores, but smaller ones that we can ride our bikes to twice a week and come home with a backpack full of fresh produce and bread instead of mega-shopping trips where we drive four or six miles and park in a huge lot in an area where there’s no sense of neighborhood. This new Cub could be the start of a future trend that we should all welcome - the ability to do as I did as a kid, as my mom did as a kid, and as my grandma did as a kid - and walk to the grocery store with our family and walk home with a couple bags of fresh groceries. As for the neighbors, that area was zoned for retail before their homes were built. The land owner has a right to use that land as it was intended, and homeowners who are complaining have a right to have input on the traffic patterns, but to fight so hard as to deny the land owner the chance to do what he was under the impression he would be able to do when the land was purchased is un-American. Every neighborhood should be so lucky as to have this reasonably sized shopping center within walking distance of so many homes. I live across the street and was crushed when Radmachers was denied permits; I am thrilled my dreams of walking to the grocery store without using up gas or driving many miles to get fresh food twice a week is back on the map.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Keller,
Wake me up when:
1. The vast majority of those using the store start biking and/or walking there instead of driving.
2. Cub starts carrying this so called fresh groceries like your parents and grandparents saw. I promise you, they weren’t getting unseasonable vegetables from the four corners of the Earth.
3. There suddenly becomes a need for buying groceries daily — which will only happen when that “fresh” produce you speak of stops being genetically engineered to have an unnatural shelf/transport life to make certain that the suburbanites are pleased that they can shop on an infrequent basis and have those vegetables last in their fridge 100x longer than nature intended.
Being that the homeowners around the Cub fought to avoid it being built and they are the ones that would be the most likely to bike or walk to the grocery store, I doubt that many people will use that as an option.
But, that said, my faith in people has been proven wrong before.
May 6th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
There are few alternatives… Our pattern is once a week at Target for the big stuff we can’t live without. Kids lunch box stuff for example. Some meat (their roasts and steaks are better than what I can get at Rainblow or Cub) and some of the brand name stuff we use. I also make 2-3 trips a week to Valley Foods for produce, buck items, spices, eggs, some dairy and bread. Oh, and deli. Chicken at Valley is better and cheaper than Target and all the others as well.
Buying produce twice a week is a pain in the butt, but the taste is better, it’s fresher and for the most part, not the genetically altered stuff you find.. great point Bill.
The payoff I’ve found is 1) we eat almost no processed foods.. except the kids rice krispy bars.. hey everyone gets a pass on somethings.. and 2) I’ve started losing weight and feeling better.
Now if we could just get that coveted Trader Joe’s in town.. I’d be there and Valley and never hit a big box store again. As it is I hit Joe’s in SLP once every couple months for fish and a case of three buck chuck.
May 6th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Sank,
Yes, if only we could get a store that feigns being organic (unlike Valley) while selling a complete majority of processed and “organic” food products to the suburbanites who would rather go with an “organic” chain rather than join a coop or other alternatives like farmers’ markets or CSAs.
Personally, on my two trips to Trader Joe’s I felt like I was at a really expensive Aldi. The store was tiny, it was stacked here and there, and it was mostly processed junk foods with an organic label. Just one guy’s opinion and one that’s not shared by all the TJ’s fanatics that seem to be thriving in the Twin Cities these days.
Get out and support your local growers, especially with the Spring/Summer growing season starting. We start getting our boxes from the CSA next week.
Bill
May 7th, 2008 at 6:57 am
I’m guilty. We had TJ’s in California when I lived there 15 years ago and I got hooked then. While you’re right, they do have the assortment partially organic and some processed stuff, they don’t feign organic they try to offer choices. And they have tons of stuff interesting stuff you can’t get at a local big box.
I like the Asian and Indian frozen entree’s. They have a lot of variety in fish. All frozen of course, but better variety and much cheaper than what you get around here (except Bylerys maybe.. but even there, most of the “fresh” is previously frozen, I’ll just thaw it myself and save the money.
Their coffees are excellent and a great deal..
The dried fruit and nuts selection is great (and cheap).. the cheap-o wine is very drinkable and at 2.99 a bottle if you can’t finish it one night.. who cares.
Give them another look, the smaller store is much more friendly, both to shoppers and environmentally, their assortments are a nice mix of organic choices, (eggs are great for example) and unlike Aldi the options are tailored more to the foodie.. all kinds of different stuff. Sometimes you just want that frozen entree and if I do and I’m choosing between Stoffers Chicken from Cub and a Chippino I picked up for $5.00 .. I’m going with the latter.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Valley, I’m a member there, but they can’t fill the whole grocery list. TJ’s is a nice compliment. (BTW Michael Aldi, heir to the fortune, owns TJ’s)
May 7th, 2008 at 7:13 am
Sank,
I wasn’t trying to claim that what they label “organic” isn’t. What I was trying to say was that the term “organic” has been polluted in recent years and we’re starting to see a shift in quality that meets somewhere in the middle due to how organic food is defined.
You’re right, Valley is definitely not a one stop shop and you do need to supplement your grocery list there with items elsewhere (just like you do from almost any store).
The comment about Byerly’s doesn’t make much sense to me though. When I said that TJ’s is frozen and prepackaged processed I meant in a whole different way than Byerly’s previously frozen foods. Let’s face it, unless it’s Fedexed, it’s not going to be fresh. Packaging high sodium and preservative content in colorful packaging and piling it both in and high above the tub freezers (in Woodbury’s smallish store — do they get smaller than that?) is what I was talking about.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:48 am
You are right (again).. They do package takeaway frozen meals high and deep. They just more interesting offerings than typical stores. I will say that the take and go category is the one of the top selling categories in food..
on the frozen I was referring only the fish. I try to eat alot of fish and in the ‘burbs it’s very hard to find good fish. nee impossible. Rainbow has farm raised hormone rich salmon, shrimp and farm raised crap eating tilapia. Byerlys has a the best fish department in town.. but when you think you’re getting fresh, because it is merchandised so pretty, you find out it’s previously frozen fish so you can’t refreeze it. TJ’s has sword, wild salmon, halibut, mahi mahi, all kinds of stuff and it’s flash frozen and inexpensive compared to elsewhere.
I think we’re in agreement on this.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Sank, a little tip, it’s not really possible to get Fresh (i.e. never been frozen) sea food in the medwest unless it’s farm raised. Want “fresh” seafood, gotta move to the coasts.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Sank,
Yup, definitely agree with you there and while I guess TJ’s selection of processed and packaged foods might be better than the others in the area, it is still processed and packaged and not exactly healthy for you.
You’re better off creating your own packaged meals, once a week — like a stew, and freezing it in small portions (I use a muffin pan) so it’s easy to carry off. Obviously that won’t work as well for the kids but it works fine when you have access to a microwave for reheating.
confused, yeah, we’re all well aware of that.
Bill
May 7th, 2008 at 9:25 am
“confused, yeah, we’re all well aware of that.”
so then why complain about it?
May 7th, 2008 at 9:29 am
confused,
While I don’t want to put words in Sank’s mouth, I didn’t think anyone was complaining about the frozen fish aside from general disappointment about the fact that it’s a reality for those of us in the Midwest.
Hope that clears it up for you.
Bill
May 7th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Confused-
Fresh isn’t the issue, its frozen fish, thawed in the grocery store and sold as fresh.. You have to use it with a day or two as you shouldn’t refreeze it. If you’re going to buy frozen… get it when it was frozen the first time and thaw it yourself.
Not exactly true BTW on your “fresh” comment. Coastal Seafoods in St. Paul has plenty of fresh options, as does Bylerys on occasion. Air freight.
Growing up in San Francisco I am familiar with fresh seafood believe me.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
I buy a lot of fish from Byerly’s. Each price tag marker says right on it if it has been “previously frozen” or is “fresh”, which they state plainly means has never been frozen.
If you want the freshest vegetables, I would recommend either a stop at the south metro outposts of the St. Paul Farmers Market that are around AV and Burnsville in the summer or joining a CSA. I am a member of Harmony Valley Farm and every week from May to November, I get a vegetable share, fruit share and coffee share delivered right from the program, some picked that day. My pickup spot is over in Rosemount.
Interesting to the original story, Kowalski’s is apparently opening an outpost at Diffley Road and Johnny Cake Ridge Road in Eagan. Nobody is talking about that for some reason.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:42 am
“I buy a lot of fish from Byerly’s. Each price tag marker says right on it if it has been “previously frozen” or is “fresh”, which they state plainly means has never been frozen. ”
Exactly.
August 4th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Bill,
The idea that all or even most area residents of Eagan were fighting the new Cub (and previously Radmacher’s) is wrong. People who move near an empty corner lot zoned for retail are wrong when years later they protest retail being built there on private property. The property owner has the right to develop the land as zoned, and Eagan has done great space planning over the years with tons of protected park space all over. We need a grocery store more than green space. Don’t move next to an empty lot that’s zoned for retail if you don’t want to some day be next to retail.
I think the majority of residents within a mile or two of the new Cub will be thankful for the option. If it’s designed as nicely inside as the rendering indicates, it’s a place I’ll shop. I’m a snob when it comes to Cub and Rainbow - as in I won’t shop there as it’s dirty and full of fake food and heavily processed food. If they bike or walk, great! If they drive a short distance or stop there on their way home from work without driving miles out of their way, all the better.
Now of course the new Cub unfortunately will be, too. I’ll be using the Cub to fill in gaps between every-two-week trips to Valley Foods where I am a member. I hope they have a good bakery and adequate produce. If I can save a gallon of gas by getting fresh vegetables and fruits at Cub - as inferior as they are to farmer’s market type produce - it’s better than nothing by far. There will be a lot of aisles I don’t visit at Cub since as a vegan who eats almost no heavily processed food, their selection is 90 percent useless and maddening to me, but such as is the typical American diet - eat crap and then take a vitamin or fish oil pill or latest fad supplement to try to “be healthy and trendy.”
Overall, though, having a Cub nearby to fill in gaps between big grocery trips walking distance from my house is a plus. A big plus. As a neighborhood, I hope we’ll pressure management to stock the types of foods we want, and if they don’t, Kowalski’s down the road can provide a great option now that it appears they’re racing to see who can finish and open first. If Cub has a salad bar, I know I’ll be stopping there regularly as preparing a salad at home with a dozen or more vegetables is tougher than going to a local salad bar like Byerly’s has. Anyway, I recommend “What to Eat” for anyone wanting to sift through diet crazes and debunk all of the meat/dairy industry propaganda.
I’m excited to have competition with Kowalskis and Cub within two miles and two blocks respectively, and a Trader Joe’s going up on Cliff just a few miles away also. Valley Foods is still where my $250 per trip grocery spending will go every couple weeks, but options are better. Now let’s do our part and start buying and demanding better, fresher, whole unprocessed food options.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:25 am
It would appear, thanks to Eagan Blog, that this Cub will open in mid-November.