Downtown Minneapolis Grocery Shopping Angst

It’s come to this:  I’m starting a list.  Of all the things I can’t find at the store each week.   There’s not a great grocery store nearby in downtown Minneapolis.  The closest is the Lund’s across the bridge on 3rd Avenue, about 10 minutes drive away.   In the past month or so, here’s everything they’ve been out of on my shopping rounds:  sea scallops, skirt steak, flat-iron steak, hanger steak, brisket, bone-in chicken breasts,  veal shank, chicken-apple sausages, and fresh parsley.  So it’s mostly the meat department falling down on the job.  However, the packaged bread is stale every time I buy it there.   Also, their pharmacy had no eye-makeup remover. What kind of pharmacy doesn’t have eye makeup remover?  I got mad and didn’t buy anything.  Let’s face it, it’s really more of a mini-Lund’s.  They have no selection.  I’m not sure why I go there anymore.

The bottom line is that I don’ t want to make a whole bunch of trips.  I like going to Target for household essentials like laundry detergent, sodas, etc.  Luckily there is one right down the street.  But that’s a separate trip from the grocery store.  How about SuperTarget?  The nearest one is 15 minutes away if I’m lucky with traffic.  However, I can’t make SuperTarget my one-stop shop because they me down on the groceries, too.  There’s no way I could find most of the produce on my list.  I know better than to attempt to buy anything too exotic there, but still attempt to get some food there and it doesn’t turn out well. Here’s what they didn’t have on my last few trips: non-instant grits (i.e. real grits), shallots, beets, any kind of small potato like red, yellow or fingerling.  And their bread is always stale, too.

Cub has been decent on groceries, but again, not always great on produce.  Missing on my last trip:  broccoli rabe and fennel. Bread: stale.

I understand that there’s a big, nice Byerly’s in Roseville, 15-20 minutes away, with a Target not too far from it.  Maybe I’ll have to head out in that direction to give it a try.  Uptown has a nice Lund’s, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, but they are all at least 15 minutes away and a visit to any of those would also require a separate trip somewhere else for basics.

Maybe these are just the pains of getting to know a new city.  I do know I miss my big Route 1 Harris Teeter five minutes from our house in Arlington, VA.

Reader's Comments

1. 

   They’re never out of stock of prepared meals and sheet cakes at that Lund’s.

   Heading out 394 to Hwy 100 would get you to a Byerly’s in not much longer than Uptown from downtown.
2. Ed Kohler on 05 Dec 2008 8:30 pm
3. 

   Thanks, I’ll give that a try.
4. Elizabeth on 05 Dec 2008 10:03 pm