Popular Grocery Stores Chain Closed Its Location Permanently For Good

It’s one of Minnesota’s more popular brands, but Cub said it will be closing this grocery store location here in the Bold North later this fall.

The Land of 10,000 Lakes has been home to some iconic brand names over the years, many of which still call Minnesota home today. We all know that big national retailers like Target, Best Buy, 3M, General Mills, and many others have their roots right here in the North Star State, right?

And so does Cub. It was founded in Stillwater, Minnesota in 1968 and still retains its corporate headquarters there. Its familiar name (which used to be ‘Cub Foods,’ but is now just ‘Cub’) actually has a hidden meaning.

I’d always just figured that the name ‘Cub’ was a reference to the abundant wildlife that also calls Minnesota home. That’s not a bad guess, seeing as the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says that between 13,000 and 18,000 black bears currently make their home here in Minnesota. So cubs ARE somewhat familiar here.

But that’s not what ‘Cub’ means, however. According to Grocery.com, the ‘cub’ in Cub Foods is instead an acronym or abbreviation for the phrase ‘Consumers United for Buying,’ which likely refers to Cub having been one of the first whole discount food stores in the U.S.

The Cub Foods chain has been the property of several different owners but is currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of UNFI (United Natural Foods). The store finder page on the Cub website says there are currently 106 Cub food stores here in Minnesota along with one location in Rockford, Illinois.

But there will soon be one less location, as Cub confirmed that it will be closing its Brooklyn Park location later this fall. According to this CCX Media story, the grocery confirmed the closing in a statement, saying:

“After thoughtful and careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to close our Cub Brooklyn Park South store. We continually evaluate our stores to ensure they are meeting our business and performance criteria, and at times, we must close a store that doesn’t enable us to stay open long-term,” the CCX Media story noted.

The story also said that Cub plans on permanently closing its Brooklyn Park South location on November 16, 2024. While it’s closing this location, Cub has been recently expanding its footprint in other parts of Minnesota. In fact, it constructed and opened a new Cub foods store down in Rochester, Minnesota’s third-largest city, earlier this spring.

While Cub is certainly a popular brand here in the Gopher State, how does it rank compared to other grocery store chains across the country? Keep scrolling to take a look at the Most Popular Grocery Store Chains in the U.S.