New Robbinsdale Grocery Store Offers Tastes of West Africa
Moliza Dennis, owner of the new Afrocana Market, is bringing a taste of West Africa to Robbinsdale.
“I’m from Liberia, so a lot of the things we have is surrounding West Africa,” Dennis said of her store. “I also grew up in Ghana as well, so we have a lot of Ghanian products, with the fufu and the … cassava and things like that.”
The grocery store — located off Bottineau Boulevard in the Robin Center, near the former home of Video Universe — fills a need for African foods in the first-ring suburb.
“Robbinsdale I feel like is a real nice, small, niche community,” Dennis said. “After doing my research, I think Robbinsdale just fit exactly the profile I was looking for.”
The self-proclaimed “foodie” started a grocery business during COVID, delivering food across the metro.
A significant portion of her customer base was seniors who wanted to stay indoors as the pandemic flared. In keeping with a commitment to seniors, the store will deliver food in the Twin Cities to anyone age 50 or older for free.
Moliza Dennis, owner of Afrocana Market, offers both African specialties and grocery staples in her new store.
As the pandemic waned, Dennis found her customers wanted a physical store they could visit.
“The online is a whole different ball game, you know?” Dennis said. “People are not seeing your face, you are delivering food, dropping it to the door, going. But I think the customers that we have were needing more of an in-person interaction … A lot of our customers are African-based, and we like physical things. We like to touch things. And everyone suggested to have a physical location, so this is our first official location.”
As word of her business travels, foot traffic increases. And her new customer base has been requesting specific items in the store, ranging from African specialties to grocery staples.
The freezers have room for both goat meat and pizzas. Rice comes in packages as heavy as 100 pounds.
“I’m a big fufu fan, so we have a lot of collection of them,” Dennis said. “A lot of the community wants the eggs, the milk, the cheese, so we also carry that as well.”
And as she settles in, she finds she prefers the physical store to the web-based business.
“I like in person more than online,” she said. “Don’t tell my nieces that, but I do, and just talking to people and meeting new people I think I like personally.”
