What Crime Data Tells Us About Brooklyn Park Cub Closure
When Cub announced it’s planning to close its Brooklyn Park store along West Broadway and Brooklyn Boulevard on Nov. 16, customers who spoke to CCX News put the blame on one thing.
“It’s crime basically, everywhere,” said Mary Washington, a customer.
“I’ve seen that they’ve been trying to save it. Put in security in there, putting the police box in the parking lot, but that just wasn’t stopping the community from stealing,” said Paige Davis, another customer. “And it’s just heartbreaking to hear that they’re going to be closing.”
Officially, this is the explanation given by Andre Persaud, president and CEO of UNFI Retail, Cub’s parent company:
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.
We take this decision very seriously and remain deeply committed to our customers, to our team members and to the communities we serve.”
What Crime Numbers Reveal
Meanwhile, if you talk to the Brooklyn Park Police Department, they say the numbers don’t back up the perception that crime was at fault.
“It’s not all crime. A lot of people just wanna say ‘oh it’s Brooklyn Park. It’s gotta be crime. It’s gotta be crime.’ Well, no it doesn’t,” said Brooklyn Park Police Inspector Elliot Faust. “And it’s not just that. Probably a lot of different things.”
According to data compiled by Brooklyn Park police, there have only been 16 reported thefts at Cub so far this year, compared to 137 in 2019.
“So every year from 2019, we’ve seen a steady decrease in the amount of thefts at Cub Foods,” said Faust. “Whether they’re reporting that less, I don’t know the answer to that. But all I can do is show the stats that we have, and it shows that it appears that theft is decreasing there.”
Statistics provided by the Brooklyn Park Police Department showing crime at the Cub store from 2019 to Sept. 14, 2024
Experts say that it’s extremely difficult to make money in the grocery store business, with razor-thin profit margins.
“My sense is Cub is trying to set its own portfolio straight, if you will,” said George John, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota. “I think they’ve got bigger fish to fry, and therefore you’re going to see the crunch on individual stores to make their mark. They’re not going to be carrying stores that can’t pull their weight.”
So if crime isn’t the reason for the impending closure, Inspector Faust says it may come down to good old-fashioned competition.
“When you think about it, you know, you have Walmart very close. They’re a little cheaper than Cub on most things,” said Faust. “You got Hy-Vee that opened up recently and there’s another Cub Foods further up off 610. People have options on where to go.”
Inspector Faust says Cub recently hired Brooklyn Park police to act as security at that location. That contract runs, at least, through the end of October.
Related: Cub to Close Brooklyn Park South Store
