Store becomes gathering place

By Britt Johnsen • bljohnsen@stcloudtimes.com • January 28, 2009

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Buzz up! A new group of stores in St. Cloud isn't just a place to buy rice, lamb and spices. It's a community hub where people gather to talk with each other, eat lunch at a deli and watch television.


Mogadishu Meat & Grocery Store opened earlier this month at 1725 Seventh St. S. The former gas station is now a cluster of commerce. You can buy groceries such as Italian cookies, spices used for East African and Middle Eastern dishes, and rice. You can buy clothes, rugs, perfume and audio CDs with readings from the Quran. And you can eat lunch at a restaurant inside the store.

Stop by on any given day and you'll find cars in many of the parking lot's spaces. Chatter can be heard throughout the store, by the cash register, in the aisles by the cookies and juice, and over coffee and food in front of a television. The deli offers such meals as catfish with fries and pasta with goat meat.

Owner Tohow Siyad says the store has become a community gathering place. Students sometimes come by on Sundays to watch sports on TV, and some customers come just to eat meals at the deli.

It's a good place for people to come together, he says.

Siyad owns other grocery stores, including St. Cloud Meat & Grocery Store, as well as a store in Minneapolis called Macca Meat & Grocery. He recently moved to St. Cloud.

The economy is tough on many businesses — he said he is breaking even right now, not losing money but not making money, either. And the Somali population — one segment of its shoppers — has been hit with unemployment as manufacturers that employ Somali immigrants have laid off employees to cope with the recession.

But the demand for the products Siyad offers is still there.

This is the fifth East African grocery store to open in St. Cloud, said Mohamoud Mohamed, director of the St. Cloud Area Somali Salvation Organization. The fact that a fifth store can open and survive says something about the demand for their products and services. It also shows that the Somali community, despite the effects of layoffs, is still thriving in St. Cloud.

"The people are settling and have a sense of establishing themselves," Mohamed said.

Even though many of the store's customers are East African, it welcomes all shoppers. Siyad says his store sees every ethnicity, from Asian to Caucasian to African.

"They eat. They buy something. That's what they need," he said.