Coborn's : Minnesota's Rural Supermarket

     A common thought in many people while driving through rural areas, is "Where do they get their food." Believe it or not, but there are stores fully dedicated to answering that question. In the rural areas of Minnesota, Coborn's dominates this scene. Coborn's has thirty stores, with two in SD.  Most stores cover departments that may not be available elsewhere in the area. This includes gas, a photo department, dry cleaners, pharmacy, a floral department, and a liquor store. The grocery store itself also helps the town for basic needs.

Logo from SCTimes

     Coborn's philosophy has done quite well, bringing in $1.4 billion of annual revenue. From what else I can find, they are the head of store conglomerate, their website saying that the company has 120 retail outlets in six states. Having been to most of those six states, I know that there are no actual Coburn's stores there. I can't seem to find any of these other stores anywhere though.

     I can imagine Coborn's will continue to do well, as being the only grocery in a town is pretty good protection to competition. They are seemingly following Belk's philosophy at store placement,  which has done well for both companies. Anyways, I'll get back to the list of malls soon.

     I have a photo gallery of the Glencoe, MN Coborn's on Photogenic Retail, another blog of mine. This can be found under the "Other SFG Blogs" list on the right side. Or at 

www.photoretail.blogspot.com