Upside Down Under: Where are the Warehouses...

Every time you go into Minot from the west, you’ll pass a collosal food warehouse that’s empty and for sale.

And when you’re in east Minot, near the state fairgrounds, you’ll see another food warehouse, not as large, but also empty.

Unfortunately, it’s part of the changing demographic of food distribution. Once upon a time, it seemed like every principal community had a food warehouse.

That included communities like Devils Lake, Wahpeton and Valley City.

Now, everything we purchase in grocery stores and consume, comes from warehouses in Fargo, Bismarck, or further away.

Take Sysco for instance. There are distribution hubs across the country, but headquarters are in Houston.

Sysco is by far the largest food distributor in the United States. Its only North Dakota location is in Fargo.

From there, things get complicated because so many sales and acquisitions have taken place, it’s hard to keep track.

For instance, that huge warehouse on the west side of Minot is a former Nash Finch warehouse that for many years had a strong presence in Fargo, Bismarck, Minot and Grand Forks.

In fact, it was so competitive, it took on the nickname “Nasty Finch.”

Several years ago, it merged with the Spartan Food Co., of Grand Rapids, Mich., and became Spartan-Nash.

That worked for a while until it was decided it would be more efficient to ship everything out of Fargo. The next closest warehouses now are Sioux Falls and

St. Cloud.

Food Services of America has had a similar fate. It once had a presence in North Dakota’s four largest communities and no longer exists today.

Each community had several routes that filled orders to the most remote locations in the state.

Some of you might remember Snoboy, a snowman caricature that represented the produce that Gamble Robinson distributed?

That company, Pacific Gamble Robinson, was sold to Food Services of America in the late ‘80s. A brand new warehouse opened in Fargo in 1990. The entire company has since been sold and is now known as CashWa.

The empty building on the east side of Minot was a once bustling Food Services of America and Gamble Robinson warehouse location.

Super Valu still has a strong presence in North Dakota despite the local Super Valu stores in just about every small town going away.

Right now it supports Dan’s Supermarkets,

Family Fare and the former Hornbacher’s. It has distribution centers in Fargo and Bismarck.

Another local company that couldn’t keep up with the big boys was Grand Forks Grocery. That company distributed food across the state, but at some point was bought out by U.S. Foods.

Since that acquisition, U.S. Foods has opened a distribution center in a growing Bismarck.

We can’t forget Cloverdale in Mandan as a food distributor. Yes, most of what it markets is meats. However, it also has a wide variety of food items to complement its meat deliveries.

It too had a presence in Minot and that location has now been closed about 10 years.

It’s hard to compare Walmart with the rest of these distributors because it only supplies its own stores. The others, all mentioned above, have called on numerous grocery store accounts.

There are others that have come and gone and in more recent years, there have been some interesting developments in food distribution.

Coberns, which owns all Cash Wise locations, has been steadily expanding the past 10 years, adding numerous stores across western North Dakota.

Remember when the only Cash Wise in the state was on south 12th Street in Bismarck?

It now has two locations in Bismarck, two in Fargo and one each in the following locations, Jamestown, Minot, Dickinson, Stanley, Tioga, Watford City, West Fargo and Williston.

Natural Grocers, a competitor to Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, has entered the North Dakota marketplace.

Its first store was in Fargo, but has since added locations in Bismarck and Grand Forks. It specializes in organic and natural products.

And let’s not forget Costco. With locations in West Fargo and Bismarck, it has redefined warehouse shopping and has thrown a big monkey wrench into Sam’s Club.