Mark Fischenich: Ask Us: Mankato likely not large, prosperous enough for Trader Joe's

Mark Fischenich, The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
·4 min read

Dec. 12—Q: Good morning.

I love Mankato, been here seven years from San Diego. So grateful my kids grew up here. My question is: Why don't we have a Trader Joe's. Mankato is growing. We need one.

Thanks.

A: Yeah, Mankato does have an edge over San Diego in pretty much every way other than the presence of Trader Joe's grocery stores.

For people unfamiliar with the chain, which started in southern California but has expanded across the country, Trader Joe's stores are much smaller than typical supermarkets, mostly offer the chain's own brands rather than name-brand items and mix in quirky food items that appeal to people who like to experiment with their eating.

At least, that's Ask Us Guy's description after being dragged through Trader Joe's stores by Mrs. Ask Us Guy whenever they pass through Rochester or the Twin Cities. Ask Us Guy doesn't complain, because he tends to eat well the following week, but he also tends to eat well when Mrs. Ask Us Guy shops at Cub Foods, Hy-Vee and Aldi.

Minnesota's 10th Trader Joe's store is under construction in Eagan, according to an August story by Southwest Media News. Eight stores are currently operating in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Twin Cities suburbs, plus the Rochester store.

But there are no other stores in Minnesota or the Dakotas, including in much larger cities than Mankato such as Duluth, St. Cloud, Fargo and Sioux Falls. In Wisconsin, the three Trader Joe's are in the Madison and Milwaukee metropolitan areas. In Iowa, it's just Des Moines and Iowa City, home of the University of Iowa.

Trader Joe's is notoriously secretive about its business practices. Numerous media stories have been written about why Trader Joe's hasn't come to a particular community, and they often quote company spokespersons encouraging people to go to the chain's website to request a store. But the spokespersons consistently refuse to say whether those requests play any meaningful role in choosing new locations. The company is also extraordinarily disciplined in never revealing the factors it uses in picking cities for expansion.

A story in the Tacoma News Tribune quoted a supermarket location research firm that speculated on the criteria, including a preference for cities with a six-figure median household income, population density and a citizenry with high education levels, including university towns and those with major medical centers.

Although Mankato has the university and the medical center, its median household income is only about $50,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

That said, the San Diego transplant is not alone. The Facebook page "Bring TRADER JOE'S to Mankato, MN!" has 1,754 followers.

Mankato City Manager Susan Arntz said she's heard from a couple of those folks about T.J.'s but is asked more frequently about bringing a Costco to town, including by her youngest daughter. Arntz explained to City Manager Girl that, while some people think municipal government decides what sort of new development occurs, it's actually private companies and investors making those decisions based on a slew of demographic data.

"Which is essentially the same answer with Trader Joe's," Arntz said. "Mankato hasn't yet fallen into the demographics of what their business model is when they're searching for a new location."

In some cases, city officials will learn of a business' interest in expanding to Mankato and can reach out with some statistics that show the area's potential in ways that the standard demographics don't, she said.

If the city ever receives inquiries from Trader Joe's, which is owned by a company headquartered in Essen, Germany, Mankato has a potential ace in the hole.

Arntz speaks German, so she'd be able to say "bitte bitte," or whatever the German version of "pretty please" is.

"I'd do my best," she said.

In reality, though, Mankato is probably out of luck until it hits some of those secret demographic marks Trader Joe's uses to pick new locations.

Ask Us Guy looked through the batch of new stores the company announced in August, wondering if any of them were anything like Mankato. Most were much larger or much more metropolitan (Brooklyn, Queens, Coral Gables, Portland, Colorado Springs, etc.)

Then he spotted Huntsville, Alabama, and thought, "We used to regularly smoke Huntsville in hockey, maybe they're comparable." But Huntsville is actually now Alabama's largest city, nearly five times Mankato's size, and its median family income is about $8,000 higher.

In the end, Arntz wonders if shoppers might not be able to find plenty of interesting and wunderbar food choices at the existing supermarkets and specialty shops already in Mankato.

"I hope we can get people to explore all the local options," she said.

Contact Ask Us at The Free Press, 418 S. Second St., Mankato, MN 56001. Call Mark Fischenich at 344-6321 or email your question to mfischenich@mankatofreepress.com; put Ask Us in the subject line.