Abandoned Retail - Target - Coon Rapids, MN

Target T-42. The 42nd Target store in the world, was located in Coon Rapids, MN.

Until it was replaced by Target T-1144, a mile or so to the north, 26 years later.

Coon Rapids Target opened October 19, 1972, and closed October 6, 1998.

Living on the north side of town in the 1970’s and 1980’s, big box retailers like Zayre and Kmart were more frequently visited, since they were closer to our house. Target was patronized less often, and usually paired with grocery shopping at Red Owl. Complete with video games while my mom shopped for food. And copies of Mad magazine slipped into the cart when no one was looking.

Downtown Center, anchored by Festival Foods, opened in 1987. Sitting at the corner of Round Lake and Bunker Lake, in Andover, that shopping center was now more convenient for weekly groceries. Subsequently, Red Owl's visits started declining, just due to Festival. Riverdale WalMart opened November 14, 1990. For better or worse, that siphoned an even more significant chunk of business away from both Kmart and Target. They felt the pinch too. Coon Rapids Kmart permanently closed in April of 1995.

Target was seemingly the place we went for most of our film developing.

In all of our bins and boxes of family photos, at least 75% of them were Target envelopes.

Well cool, now I have transition artwork for this story! 

My only photo of the old Coon Rapids Target, as an open store, came in August of 1995. It was taken by the backup catcher, and was part of a series of photos we took that morning, themed “Honkass Around Town”, for a planned -but never written- Wasted Quarter story. It was just an idea I came up with during the previous overnight shift at 99 Spillihp (Parts One and Two), and the backup catcher agreed to be my photographer, the following morning.

Of all the locations we took pictures of that morning, only two (Anoka Ramsey Community College and the Riverdale WalMart) are still open today.

Coon Rapids Target closed in 1998, when the new -and MUCH larger- store opened in Riverdale.

Leaving the old store empty, sad and decaying. (Photo from June, 2004.)

A few years ago, I stopped by a sports card shop that had a table at the front door. It held multiple hand-collated boxed sets from the Junk Wax Era (1987-1993), for $5 a set. I picked up three of these sets, as they had Twins and Expos cards I needed. One of them was 1991 Ultra. In order to prevent the cards from bouncing around inside the box, a folded-up Target ad was wedged between the cards and the box.

I didn't recognize it right away, but I soon discovered a bonus prize amongst the cards that I only wanted for $5 (had they been more, I wouldn't have bought them). I didn't have a reason to open the box in the store, so it was an awesome surprise once I got home.

Unfolding it, I saw the the bottom inch or so of each page had been cut off. That sucks, but at least the last page included the dates that week's sales were effective. These savings would have been all yours between September 15th through the 21st, 1991.

Immediately I knew these ads would end up featured in this long planned Coon Rapids Target story. 

However, since the ad had likely been folded up like this for over 30 years, I'd need to press it for scanning. So all pages were placed between sheets of paper, and pressed between thick books for a weeks before I scanned them in pieces, and put them back together in Photoshop. A move made necessary since the ad was about an inch wider than my scanner.

The effort I put in for you guys...

Answering Machines, Home Fitness VHS tapes, Energizer AA batteries in 8 pack form, and compact disks of Luther Vandross, Randy Travis, Tom Petty and Bonnie Raitt. That is a very 1991 shopping list. 

And it doesn’t seem very magical…

I absolutely did not remember Magic Johnson having an endorsement deal with Target.

That tiny phone looks ridiculous in Magic's massive fingers.

Apparently Magic Johnson's favorite stuff includes camera supplies, like tripods and flowery photo albums.

Who knew?

Magic also likes RCA televisions and VCR's!

But who doesn't? 

(This was the only page that was the result of a single scan. Piecing it together would have been a pain, due to the layout, and it just didn’t seem worth doing. There wasn't a great deal of worthwhile content getting cut off this way.)

Target’s mid-1980’s Photo Envelopes could not looked more basic.

I think we had several hundred of these laying around.

******

Before I get into seriously discussing the old Coon Rapids Target, and surrounding areas, I must make mention of the defunct blog, Dumpy Strip Malls. Reading her work, played a very large role in developing Four Baggers. 

It was run by a woman who never put her name on it, so I don’t know who to give proper credit to. I don’t want to call her Ms. Dumpy, because that seems so crude and disrespectful to someone who had a great idea, and an even better execution of that idea. Her blog was self-described as a “tongue-in-cheek look at Minnesota’s dead malls and other retail establishments”. 

Now that's a mission statement I can get behind!

Her blog ran from roughly July 2008, through July 2009, on Wordpress.

Then for a short time in 2010, at DumpyStripmalls.com. 

The original Wordpress pages can still be found online. Most are intact, though some of her photos are now dead links. Nothing from DumpyStripmalls.com, still exists at that address.

But I implore you to look up and read all of her stuff. 

Perhaps you’ll enjoy her not-so-subtle snarky digs at Coon Rapidians as much as I did! She earned massive points with me in comparing a drive up early 2000’s Coon Rapids Blvd. to the streets of Chernobyl.

Distinctly remember Doktor John and I making that exact same comparison, in the fall of 2003. I was helping him move, which meant multiple carloads going between Flintwood and the abandoned Perkins, over a several day span. Through the heart of the decaying clayhole business district and the sadness of Kinney Shoes and EZ Stop... 

Why didn't I bring my camera?

Dumpy Strip Malls lifespan was close to 10 years before I started Four Baggers and Foreclosures (in July, 2017). But Dumpy Strip Malls was a major influence in what I'm doing today. When I found her blog, back in 2008, I had no plans to do anything similar. At the time, I was working on my own Coon Rapids zine/book, on and off, and was looking for any sort of new information to add into my big pile of notes.

Searching the Googles brought me to her site, dedicated to covering failed and failing retail, in the northern Minneapolis suburbs. Her Coon Rapids specific topics included Sportsman’s Warehouse, Frank’s Nursery and Crafts, Springbrook Mall, and most importantly, Target. 

These are all her pictures. They cover things I didn't get photos of, before the Target building was gone. The limited amount of pictures I took, are all blurry and taken from across the wide open parking lot.

Extra glad she got a good photo of those awesome parking lot lights. If you squint really hard, you can see the Sherwin Williams paint store, on the north side of Coon Rapids Blvd., was still open! They, just like Target and all the other businesses in this retail center, would be closed and/or demolished by 2011.

(Laura took this photo on May 16, 2013.)

Sherwin Williams closed their store here and moved to Riverdale, in 2009 or 2010. Just like every other retail business in the city. I think just about anyone who pays attention to that sort of thing, was concerned that iconic sun mural on the Sherwin Williams wall, was doomed. Especially when the leasing company decided the best place for their sign, was bolted to the wooden sun mural itself.

The building was still empty in 2018, when Laura and I moved back to Coon Rapids. Suddenly, I was driving the Boulevard twice a day. But in the fall of 2018, the building was getting a new tenant. With all the work apparently going on inside the building, it would only be a matter of time before the sun would go...

I floated the idea of ripping it off the wall, and gluing it to the side of Burger Time.

Since there’s absolutely nothing going on there.

I'll write about that place eventually.

Nope! The new business leasing this space, the Purple Rose Hall, actually incorporated the sun mural into their building, cleaning it up and painting the wall behind it a dark color. They didn't change anything about the sun, but it fits the new look of the building. I think there's more than a few longtime residents that are happy the sun is still out. On at least one small part of Coon Rapids Blvd.

But let's get back to Target.

Specifically, one more thing related to her story on Dumpy Strip Malls.

The Dumpy Strip Malls Coon Rapids Target story brought up the 1991 John Hughes disowned movie, Career Opportunities. It has zero link to the Coon Rapids Target, but the movie looks like it was shot in pretty much every Target store in 1990. Her story used some screen captures from the movie, that best showed off what the interior of a 1990 Target store looked like.

Which is what I picture when I think of the old Coon Rapids Target as well.

A few weeks ago, I was at the Blaine Cheapo Records, and found a copy of Career Opportunities on DVD. They were selling it for a price that I was willing to pay, just to make new screen captures for this story. 

When this movie came out in 1991, I went to see it at the old Northtown Mall Cinema 4, with some friends. After seeing the trailer, I wanted to see the movie. Even though I was still a few years off from the graveyard shift life, it was still just so appealing to me!

Career Opportunities - A movie so bad, they had to tear down the one theater that showed it…

I wrote that before re-watching this movie for the first time in nearly 32 years. Maybe it was just the nostalgia, perhaps it was the low expectations, but I enjoyed watching Career Opportunities for what it was. Not great, but I’ve wasted my time with worse forms of entertainment.

So in tribute to the great Coon Rapids Target story on Dumpy Strip Malls, I've taken all new screen captures from Career Opportunities!

Now in higher resolution! With brighter colors! And more of them!

Dumpy Strip Malls...

Four Baggers and Foreclosures!

Dumpy Strip Malls...

Four Baggers and Foreclosures!

Okay... You get the point...

Bullseye!

As the 1980’s drew to a close, the Target film envelope was starting to show some character. Thanks to the technological developments at Kodak, they were able to paste a giant Kodak logo on the front side. They also discovered a whole world of fonts not limited to Helvetica!

The fill in your information side evolved into four color printing!

Perhaps they wanted to class things up with the big new Target movie debuting in theaters in March, 1991?

Career Opportunities starts off with a series of wackiness to set up the main character as a directionless slacker (such a great 1990's term!) that can't hold a job. Irritating his parents that just want him to get going in life. He'd just been fired from his job at a dog kennel, and was interviewing for a job at (an Illinois) Target store, under the threat of his father shipping him off to St. Louis (what?) if he loses another job.

Holy crap! John Candy was in this movie!?!?

Why yes he was! Playing the role of C.D. Marsh, Target Store Manager!

After more wackiness over a mistaken identity, our lead (whose name I don't remember, and cannot be bothered to look up right now), is offered a position as overnight store janitor. And this couple of minutes to set up and move along the story, is all you see of John Candy. Pretty sure C.D. Marsh has an open pack of cigarettes in his jacket pocket. Running a Target, I know I would...

So our hero would be locked inside a Target store, alone, from 10pm until 7am. Responsible for cleaning the entire place. You know, I can understand Target making one guy do all the cleaning, but why isn't anyone here stocking the shelves at night? I know for a fact that 1990's era Target store had people inside during an overnight shift, stocking shelves in addition to cleaning the store.

I have my sources!

Target stores of the 1980's and 1990's had their own fast food places inside, and the old Coon Rapids store was no exception. Food Avenue was the name they typically were under (or Food Express), until third party brands like Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Starbucks started taking over these spaces.

Some stores had more elaborate restaurants than others. That great folded up September 1991 Target advertisement showed a picture of a pretty decent looking Target Patty Melt. 

I guess that’s how you know you have a good Target, basically, is if they serve Patty Melts.

I'm pretty sure the old Coon Rapids Target Food Avenue didn't serve Patty Melts. Doubt they went much beyond popcorn, hot dogs and Icees. Although you could smoke cigarettes in the Coon Rapids Target Food Avenue! At least until a certain point in it’s lifetime.

When you entered the Coon Rapids Target, the right side of the entryway was set aside for McGlynn’s Bakery display cases. They were filled with cakes, muffins and cookies, and at the end, you could watch the baker decorate those cakes, with only a plexiglass sneeze guard between you and that spinning cake!

As a little kid, I was fascinated by the frosting squeeze tubes.

I think most were...

The left side of the Coon Rapids Target entryway housed the Service Desk. For returns, order pick up and whatever limited services that Target offered back then. Pretty standard looking Target Service Desk, circa 1990, as shown in Career Opportunities.

As you continued into the store, a well of shopping carts would have been directly in front of you, with the double row of checkout stands, to the left of there.

Checkout stands of that era, with the staggered lanes, allowing 24 checkout lanes in the space that 12 would normally take. This seemed to be a Target exclusive customer service design.

Maybe you'll be lucky and the computer system will miss up! Then the stressed out and overworked head cashier will come over and give you a free $3 coupon, for your inconvenience! I found this stuffed inside one of those many Target Photo Envelopes. Meaning it was never redeemed, so we lost our chance at saving $3.

You're welcome, Target...

Those great Target light-up checkout lanes with Helvetica numbers!

Sexually segregated fitting rooms.

Storeroom doors similar to these, were located in several places along the Coon Rapids Target west wall. Allowing access to the closed off Applebaum's. In later years, they've improved the appearance of these back area access doors. But in 1990, the Coon Rapids Target had these exact doors around the store.

Kids clothes are on sale this week!

So is ammunition? 

Wasn't expecting this... How long has it been since Target sold guns and ammo?

And there’s some great 1991 era web press, 4 color registration marks, on the right side of the page. That 30 years of technology absolutely applies to the process used in printing their ads. Specifically, Target stopped printing weekly advertisements, about 4 years ago!

Looking down the aisles towards the shoe department.

But they’re not on sale this week…

Doing the set dressing on this movie had to be a nightmare of navigating paid product placement. As I watched Career Opportunities, it seemed they were very careful in what was shown on camera. There was never any scene which involved the toy department, and the electronics were very carefully shown. You'd imagine there could be the potential for issues if they showed specific licensed products.

Even this shot of very full shelves makes a point to not feature anything too identifiable.

The back page of the Target ad was always dedicated to household needs. Here you have diapers, Kleenex, paper towels, motor oil, popcorn and anti-freeze, laundry detergent and shampoo. But the key promoted sale object of this week's back page, 3 packs of TDK VHS tapes for $7.77! 

I know I bought a fair amount of TDK videotape, back in the day.

I don't remember the Coon Rapids Target Sporting Goods section looking quite like this. 

Where housewares meet ladies wear...

Okay, Target is boring me. Let’s go outside and look for something to eat.

Certainly there has to be a food establishment around here...

Pizza?

Keno's Pizza opened in 1965, setting up shop in a building with 4-5 storefronts, that used to sit along Coon Rapids Blvd. Roughly in the area occupied by KFC, Taco Bell and White Castle, back when they were still standing. 

According to local anecdotes (which is about all I’ve got, since I have no memory of the first Keno’s Pizza Coon Rapids location), neighbors of Keno’s Pizza may have included: Electrolux Vacuums, the Touchdown Tavern, an RCA Television store and a barber shop were also allegedly in this old strip mall. There were likely others, but that’s all I know of offhand, or heard others talking about.

Keno's Pizza left this location in 1978, and the building was demolished around 1980. It may or may not have been linked to a reconfiguring of this entire Target area, during that time. Which saw the addition of the shopping center on the west side of the property, anchored by Rainbow Foods. Rainbow’s arrival coincided with the closure of Applebaums, which was inside Target. Newer, single tenant fast food restaurants, lined the north edge of the property, along Coon Rapids Blvd. Target's on site gas station was eliminated around this time as well. 

Keno's moved about a mile east of their previous location, building a new restaurant on this plot of vacant land. (Photo taken in Spring of 1977, from the 109th Place Apartments, where my great grandmother lived.) Keno’s operated here from 1978 to 1988, when the restaurant was sold to Pizza Hut. I'm sure I ate Keno's Pizza at some point, but I don't remember it. Our family was more on the Pizza Flame side of the local hometown pizza debate. Although living on the north end of town, it became Mansetti's in the mid 1980's. 

I still choose Mansetti's for nearby local pizza, fairly often.

Pizza Hut lasted until 2017, before closing to become a laundromat.

That I talked about a few months ago (Go For It Gas), so let's move on. 

For ease of understanding the area I’m talking about, I made this handy map on top of what the Googles Satellite View of the Target area looked like in 2022. I’ve painstakingly added white boxes to represent all of the businesses that are no longer in the shopping center. This isn’t meant to be an exact scale representation (The Rainbow strip mall and Target should absolutely be bigger), but it gives you an idea where the stuff I’m talking about was then, in relation to now. 

Since I have to understand that most of my audience is no where near as familiar with this stuff as I am.

We’ll start at the top center of this picture, at what was once White Castle.

White Castle closed this location and moved to Riverdale, joining their old neighbor, Target, in 2004.

Love those little White Castle logos on the blue awnings.

Those would be removed by 2006, and the next time I made it through Coon Rapids, armed with a camera.

Just crudely cut the castle away from the awnings. Sad. 

Sorry Cambridge Commercial Realty, no one’s buying the White Castle…

But why didn't I back up to take better pictures?

In moving, White Castle took over the old Schlotzki’s Deli building, when that restaurant had a much shorter shelf life than expected. For a while after it moved, I called the new restaurant Schlotzki’s Castle. Since it looked nothing like White Castle ever did.

Occasionally I’ll find myself in the drive through for other people, but I’m just not into their food.

Oh, I’ll play with it, but I’m not keen on eating it.

The best example of what you can (and should) do with White Castle food would be beating it to death with a baseball bat. And in August 1994, that’s precisely what we did!

With the looming Major League Baseball strike approaching on the horizon, I wanted to do some sort of baseball sketch, for our cable access TV show. Producer Ben and I came up with the idea of recording one inning of a Twins game, then placing footage of us hitting, pitching and fielding White Castle Sliders, over the original Twins broadcast. All of our “baseball” footage was shot at Mississippi Elementary School, a few blocks behind where Coon Rapids Target once stood.

Most of the cast of 201 Proof Television was doing several remote shoots just south of Coon Rapids Blvd., that day. As we were getting ready for the Hamburger Baseball shoot, we pooled our money together and bought 4 dozen White Castle Sliders. Most of us hung out in the parking lot, trying to see if 4 guys would be able to pick up the Looping Nordship, if each of them grabbed a corner. We never found out, because all 4 of them farted while straining to lift. The laughter hindered the test of strength. We gave up after one try, the way you should.

Producer Ben was inside, getting all the food that we weren’t going to eat. (Well, we did have to keep yelling at the backup catcher, for scarfing too many burgers between takes, and no one was looking.) Even though we bought close to 50 mini-burgers, we still were running out of them before getting all the shots we needed. The last few shots were made with hand-reformed burgers, from exploded burger remnants picked up off the ground.

The whole idea sounded way better in my mind, than it was in execution. 

While smashing cheap hamburgers with an aluminum baseball bat was a whole lot of fun, it got pretty messy. Everyone standing in at the catcher and home plate umpire position, ended up getting pelted with cold, greasy bits of White Castle Sliders, as they exploded off the bat. 

Shown here behind the plate was the 201 Proof Television Hamburger Baseball Team's starting catcher, Cory Swap. Who took getting blasted in the face, chest and groin, by greasy White Castle sliders, and turned that sort of adversity into a very successful BBQ Restaurant.

Go eat at Jellybean and Julia's in Anoka, MN!

I assure you it’s better than White Castle or KFC!

Thanks to Major League Baseball’s broadcasting rights, I never put this sketch on YouTube.

Beyond the fact that no one should ever watch it, I don’t need my favorite sport suing me over something this stupid.

Fun, but stupid.

The recently closed up White Castle Drive Thru, June 2004. The St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper box hasn't even been picked up yet. The landscaping still looks decent, and the stripes in the parking lot are still fairly bright. Unfortunately, they did pull the menu out of the menu board before I came calling for a photo.

7 plus years later... Same closed up White Castle Drive Thru, September 2011. Less than 15 days away from demolition. The St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper box is long gone, the landscaping looks dead, and weeds are poking through cracks all over the parking lot. Although the stripes are still fairly bright. Unfortunately, I didn't include the menu board in this picture.

It was still empty.

******

Over 30 years since this advertisement was current.

Been a lot of advances in technology, that brought us from then to now. 

How about some phones of that era to really drive home the point?

Maybe that cordless brick in the lower left corner of the page.

Like Magic indeed...

Okay... Tiny Magic on a phone is getting a tad too gimmicky Target...

Why don't you just stop that...

I have no pictures of the old Coon Rapids Blvd. Taco Bell as a Taco Bell. I don’t even remember when it opened. I’m thinking 1984 or 1985, though it may have been earlier. I do remember hearing about it before it opened however, then was very disappointed when it wasn’t going to be a Zantigo. 

The best I can do is a terrible quality picture, taken from the parking lot of the Family Center Mall, at sunset, on December 30, 1999. You can vaguely see the lit up Taco Bell sign, nearly dead center in the picture. To the left of the sign, the under-awning lights are visible.

Make a run for the border... If you can see it.

Taco Bell closed this location some time between 2000 and 2003. The building didn’t sit vacant for too long before Fantasy Gifts moved in and converted it from a fast food taco stand, into an adult boutique. For years, I called this new business: “Porno Bell”.

A move made necessary when Fantasy Gifts was forced to move out of their previous location in the Coon Rapids Shopping Center. The entire 50 plus year old shopping center had to be demolished in the summer of 2004, because the land needed to sit empty for the next 15 years, while the city figured out what to do with it.

Back in December 2000, I dropped by the Coon Rapids Shopping Center version of Fantasy Gifts, with my former roommate, Crazy Carl. I bought an item that night and reviewed it for the subsequent issue of Wasted Quarter. I’m not going to reprint it here. If you have that copy of my old zine, you would know that semi-notorious story. If you don’t, you’ll just have to let your imagination run wild.

I was a fairly frequent customer of this Taco Bell in the mid 1990’s. Back then, they had a Chili Cheese Burrito on their .59 / .79 / .99 cent menu (the last GOOD idea Taco Bell had) and it was f’ing phenomenal. Then it disappeared. A couple of years ago, I saw that Taco Bell put the Chili Cheese Burrito back on the menu (for $2.79). I broke me self-imposed moratorium on eating Taco Bell to give it a chance. It was was f’ing NASTY!

 

(From a round of photos of the area, my mom took in October 2010.)

Fantasy Gifts painted the building an ugly shade of brown, since 2006. When this was still a Taco Bell, the entrance was in the front of the building. The brick extending above the roof was part of the front doors. Almost immediately in front of you was the Pepsi fountain, when you entered. People corral leading up to the registers on your left, seating area -fronted by a fake fireplace- to your right. Fantasy Gifts stayed in the old Taco Bell, until early 2011, when they moved again. East this time, setting up camp inside what was once a PDQ convenience store, roughly three blocks from their old Taco stand. 

I was never inside the former Taco Bell version of Fantasy Gifts. However, I really wish I had gone inside this store. Just to see how Fantasy Gifts remodeled the kitchen and food storage areas, for the new use of space. I patronized the old Coon Rapids Shopping Center Fantasy Gifts twice, and the new former PDQ edition of Fantasy Gifts a couple of times, but I never tried the pornolupa.

After PDQ ceased operations, a mattress store opened up here in the early 1990’s. They sold me a mattress back in 2003. For a very brief period of time in 1989, Triple Crown Sports Cards occupied the southwest corner of the building. That store didn’t even last 6 months, although the sign stayed up for several years.

Once Fantasy Gifts vacated the old Taco Bell in 2011, the building sat empty. Next door to the abandoned White Castle, last used in 2004. The sign out front wasn't a for sale or lease, as it was in years past, rather the name and number of the construction company about to take these former restaurants down.

Both Taco Bell and White Castle (and most of the other buildings here) would be demolished in September and October of 2011. Porno Bell was just days away from the wrecking ball when I took this dark and grainy photo.

With Fantasy Gifts no longer selling tacos, what did they use the drive thru for? Could you just pull up and order Chasey Lain's Realistic Vagina with a side of vibrating anal beads? Hold the Fire Sauce, Sally the Fucking Slut...

What’s going on at Target?

The greatest part of Career Opportunities is seeing the Target time capsule. The stores don't look much like this anymore, and there's something to be said for that classic red and white Helvetica theme that Target was rocking back then. 

And also, the word "Hosiery" needs to come back...

This would represent Cosmetics!

And all this stuff pretty much files under Hosiery in my mind.

This would be more accessories.

Or Hosiery adjacent.

Anything leading up to the scene payoff of our unlikable hero briefly cross dressing, and grabbing his crotch. While some bad early 1990’s pop music plays over this montage. Paying off the scene at the beginning of the Target stuff, where his boss yells at him to stay out of the women's clothing.

Hilarity ensues...

Perhaps Frank Whaley would've felt more into character if he'd tried a Toni Silkwave Home Perm?

He could save 30 cents, but he'll have to hurry, as the offer expires January 31st, 1985.

The Gillette Company needs you to pick up the pace!

And 1983 era Target needs you to pick up your photos of Fort William, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.

After all of that tacos, 1983 and excitement, I need a cigarette!

So let’s take a quick trip to Kentucky Fried Cigarettes, for our vice!

KFC closed this location many years ago, after being one of the first of the Target area restaurants to migrate to Riverdale, in the late 1990's. It wasn't vacant for long, as Tobacco Unlimited jumped on the store, moving over from the Midwest Shoppes strip mall, behind the former KFC.

Pretty sure KFC opened here around the same time as Taco Bell, but I could be wrong. There used to be a Kentucky Fried Chicken, about a mile east of here, also on Coon Rapids Blvd. That was back when they were allowed to have their full name, instead of just a vague abbreviation. Both restaurants were never open at the same time, I'm just not sure what year the location switch took place. That old Kentucky Fried Chicken building became Haven’s Sporting Goods. I think they lasted until around 1988 or so.

The starting catcher used to work at this KFC. Just beginning a career of handling the meat better than most. His time spent toiling away in the chicken mine coincided with the great Hamburger Baseball pelting, broadcast live on NCTV, August 4th, 1994.

Front entrance doors were left wide open... Were I more adventurous, I could have probably gotten inside all three of these doomed fast food places for one final time. Over the years of this building's usefulness, I was here for both chicken and cigarettes. Though, not at the same time.

The temporary Firestone sign signaled that there was only one business in this area that was still open.

Firestone actually stayed open for business in their building after all of the others around it had been demolished. 

I once drove through this drive thru with Doktor John, so he could get a few packs of Camels. I didn't need any of my beloved Winston Light 100's BOX! that day, But I'd never experienced the novelty of a buying packs of smokes without getting out of my car before.

The KFC, Taco Bell and White Castle buildings were all demolished in October 2011. Less than three weeks after I took these pictures. Good thing I had scheduled my vacation from Denver when I did, or I would have missed the end of the Coon Rapids Blvd. Target retail area.

Just across the access road, from where I took the picture of KFC/Tobacco Unlimited, used to be the home of the The Ground Round. I covered the long gone restaurant back in 2017, so I'm not going to do more than summarize it here.

The Ground Round restaurant and bar, in Coon Rapids, MN, opened in the early 1980's. It was abruptly closed in late 1997, when a fire broke out in the bar and/or kitchen. Ground Round never reopened and the building was demolished the following Spring. 

The parking lot for no restaurant stayed in place until the rest of the buildings along the Coon Rapids Blvd. were removed in 2011. In the distance of this 2006 photo, you can see the newish Goodwill store that opened up in the old Applebaums grocery section of the Coon Rapids Target building.

Heheheheh… 1990…

Definitely remember seeing lawn furniture displays at Target that looked much like this one.

Disposable cameras were just starting to be a thing in 1990, and Target wanted you to try one out, with a whole $1.00 off!

This coupon was also stuffed inside an old photo envelope.

Next door to the Ground Round was the Rocky Rococo, which turned into the Acapulco, then demolished and partnered with an abandoned bank to form (yet another) Walgreens!

I don't know where this picture of Rocky Rococo came from. I picked it up off facebook many years ago now. This picture has particular value as it also shows the drive up lanes of the bank next door. Haven't been able to find any other pictures of that bank. 

If it's still 1991 outside, you can save big on a Rocky Rococo's Heart Shaped Pizza! Although I don't know how many more years you would have been able to buy a Heart Shaped Pizza at the Coon Rapids Blvd. Rocky Rococo. Although I'm pretty sure it was still open when I moved to Colorado, in 1996.

After Rocky Rococo closed this location, the Acapulco Mexican Restaurant set up shop in this building. Again, I was living 1000 miles away when these changes to the area took place. My only exposure to the Rocky Rococo, came during my yearly visits, when I'd look for Doktor John and Crazy Carl. Sometimes they'd be found sitting at one of the small round tables in the bar, drinking those huge ass mugs of tap Dos Equis.

In honor of those nights at the Coon Rapids Blvd. Acapulco: "Hockey is fun to watch because it’s all hitting and fast and fast hitting. A hot Acapulco chick touches Carl for 5 seconds, Carl is excited. JFK, Waco and alien conspiracies. Doktor John remembers his cardinal rule about drinking: never look in the mirror. The complete and utter nonsense that is today's organized religion. Boom boom boom boom... DAAAAMN! Earning a complimentary nod from me. See you up at Phillips tomorrow? It's just easier for me to deal with if I think you’re going to be there... Weetpenervittles."

Something that stood out to me about Acapulco was how busy the restaurant always was, even when I'd drop by around 9pm. Other than chips and salsa, I didn't eat at this location. But the Acapulco was clearly outgrowing it, and also moved to Riverdale, at some point in 2001 or 2002.

Shortly after Acapulco left, the building was demolished, along with the bank next door. Walgreens had bought both properties, in order to build their own larger stand-alone store. Previously, they were the east side anchor of Coon Rapids Square, a small shopping center a block or so west of the new store. That store opened in the late 1980's, and was already too small for the store Walgreens had grown into.

Acapulco didn't stay in Riverdale all that long either. Rather than continue sharing a smallish space amongst the other in-line retail, they built a much larger and nicer, stand-alone restaurant (with a much larger bar) in Andover.

I strongly recommend the Carne Asada. Unlike the Mexican Restaurants that serve theirs with Flank Steak, Acapulco serves their Carne Asada with Ribeye Steak! And that difference is everything in the world!

As for Rocky Rococo, they're down to just a single location in Minnesota. Last found in Brooklyn Park, close to where Crazy Carl lives! There's about 25 total Rocky Rococo pizza restaurants in Wisconsin, however. I have to admit that I've never had a Rocky Rococo's pizza.

Or fuzzy seat covers for my car...

In case you want to buy some of those horrifying fuzzy seat covers, those are on sale this week.

So are electric coolers and 5 gallon air tanks. 

You can also get The Club, to ensure no one steals your 1991 Ford Escort. Although, you could save money by just going with a set of those horrifying fuzzy seat covers. Install those and no one will want to steal your car. Even if you park in Crazy Carl's neighborhood!

But let’s say that car now needs an oil change and some new tires.

Firestone was the last surviving business of the Target Era, in this particular retail zone.

Which was now transitioning to mostly park land. And Walgreens.

Firestone stayed open at this location until late 2012. I wish I had better pictures of the building, since it was a long standing family go-to for oil changes and tire issues. Tire issues such as this one...

Inside the store, there was a tire on display, with a screwdriver driven strangely through the tread. That tire actually came from my mom's car. I was a passenger when it happened, in October of 2011. She was driving westbound on 131st Avenue, approaching Coon Creek Blvd. Small piles of leaves lined much of the road. She drove through one pile that was almost out to the middle of the road and we heard a nice THUNK come from the back of the car.

She pulls the car over and I get out to look, and see this. I can't understand how a screwdriver could go through a tire like this. I put the spare on and we took the car up to Firestone. They'd never seen a tire damaged in that way before, either. Obviously it wasn't repairable, but they said they'd like to keep the tire and display it in the store. Sure why not?

I took that picture of the tire a year later, in September 2012. Firestone was all alone in the field, with only the new Coon Rapids Ice Center around it. I don’t know if that tire made it’s way to the new Firestone store, but it was on display at the old store until it closed for good.

Firestone moved into newly constructed building on Hanson Blvd., in January 2013. They took the land once used by the old U.B. Tan and A.B. Sporting Goods store (Put those together and you get BUBA. Yup...), which was demolished in the Spring of 2012.

The old Firestone was still standing in October 2013.

While researching this story, via the Googles, I found this picture of it standing all sad and abandoned, amongst makeshift access roads carved from the old Target parking lot. The new Coon Rapids Ice Area is casting shadows to your immediate left.

Trees are blocking the view of the old Firestone building, which had been closed for almost a year at this point. No idea why this building survived so much longer than the rest in this area, but I wasn’t around to hear anything about it either. I’m assuming it was demolished before too long into 2014, along with all the remaining pieces of the old Target and Rainbow parking lots, plus the access road leading up to Coon Rapids Blvd.

Transition shot of cans of paint on an aisle endcap.

I don’t know where the next three pictures came from. They may have been a part of the Target story on the non-Wordpress version of Dumpy Strip Malls, but that site is long gone, so I can’t check. All three of them are dated: September 7, 2009.

Paint peeling off a badly sun bleached stop sign…

Entrance to Coon Rapids Target, with broken glass and the For Lease/For Sale sign variant above the doors.

And what was the fire exit by the Food Express.

In case your cigarette accidentally ignites your Icee.

The Black & Decker Dustbuster!

And weren't they just selling power strips on the previous page, with the computer accessories? 

Heavy-Duty should be in quotes. These shelves simply don't hold enough weight compared to the size they take up. Unless you need to store 10 medium sized boxes of feathers. I have bought some very decent shelving from Target, for the basement, but this is not it.

Another separate set of in-line retail sat between White Castle, Taco Bell and KFC, and the Target/Rainbow parking lot. 

Firestone would have sat directly to the right of this picture. All of the storefronts had full length glass windows, I was really surprised there was no broken panes with as desolate as that area has now become. 

For the sake of reference in my notes, I called this the Lakeland Strip Mall.

Lakeland Health Services was the last known business listed on the sign and marquee, so that’s what I went with.

Further digging lead me to find a small Cost Cutters ad, from a 1995 illustrated Coon Rapids city map. That ad mentions “Midwest Shoppes” as Cost Cutters location. All I have to say of this is “Anoka! Land of Shoppees!”

No one gets that...

So, it’s no longer the Lakeland Strip Mall either, I guess.

Cost Cutters used to operate out of the last store space on the far left side of the Midwest Shoppes. I have not been to any hair cutting place in nearly 30 years. I don’t like people touching my head. So the last time I had my hair professionally cut was 1994, at this particular Cost Cutters. Since then, my hair will grow until I decide to shave it all off with my clippers. Because I still don’t like people touching my head. 

I’d like to know the story behind this sign, taped inside Cost Cutters window. I’m picturing a crew showing up to make improvements to the property, despite it being days away from demolition. Perhaps a crew of rogue construction workers invading the city, with the sole purpose being to fix siding, trim and cracked pavement.

Actually that’s something that Coon Rapids could probably use.

Unless their idea isn’t to improve, but only to destroy, then that sign is warranted. 

The outer pane of glass, on the west side of ex-Cost Cutters, is all sorts of shattered. Personally, I blame that crew of rogue construction workers for this. Angry they weren’t allowed to make repairs, or use the materials they brought to the site, the foreman decided to chuck his helmet into the window. He probably didn’t like how that helmet was touching his head either...

I’m making my own fun!

With the rapidly expiring daylight, I was in a hurry to get as many pictures as I could before darkness took away the unexpected opportunity to get pictures of these rapidly disappearing Coon Rapids landmarks. My co-pilot and I were already running late for a planned appearance at Crazy Carl’s Brooklyn Park townhome.

I didn’t take too many pictures of the rest of the Midwest Shoppes. There were a lot of covered up windows, and not a whole lot of things to actually take pictures of. Besides, of all the stores to hold a place in the Midwest Shoppes, I really only had personal experience with Cost Cutters. 

In addition to Cost Cutters, the Midwest Shoppes at Lakeland Strip Mall once included a Jenny Craig Weight Loss Center, an Optometrist/Eyeglasses place, some sort of travel agency and a TCBY frozen yogurt store. There was also a Tobacco Shop, on the far right end, but they moved into the KFC, once it switched from selling chicken to cigarettes. 

Not sure which is worse for your health...

Much like any of the buildings still standing in the old Target Shopping Center, these were all torn down in early October 2011. I took most of these pictures on September 29, 2011. 

When I returned to Coon Rapids, exactly one year later, the only building left here was Firestone.

Picture taken from the parking lot intersection. Midwest Shoppes would have been inside the gassy area in front of the picture. The cut out in the curbing shows where the driveway for those stores, plus White Castle, Taco Bell and KFC behind it. Rainbow Foods would have been directly behind me, with Target to the right of it. Firestone was still open when this picture was taken, and would have been just outside the frame to the right. 

More B-Roll footage from Career Opportunities, included a brief shot of the shelves of audio cassettes. While it wasn't a whole lot, I did but a few albums on vinyl and cassette at the Coon Rapids Target.

None of which was more obscure than...

When I found this at Target, I didn't know anything about Weird Al recording a Peter and the Wolf album. And I was a huge Weird Al fan back then (and now). Seeing this for sale in a Target in 1988 was almost as strange as seeing this album for sale in Florida would be today.

I'll let you figure out why.

Back to Career Opportunities! For zero necessary reason, a sub-plot was shoehorned into the movie seeing two insane prison escapees, who (for no explained reason) target this Target to break into and take our hero, and his girl hostage? Or were they trying to rob the store? WHY ARE THEY HERE?!?! They're ruining a movie that wasn't even that good in the first place!

When so much of the beginning of the movie covers how he is locked inside the store alone, how did these two just show up inside the store? That was never explained, and it really bothered me that it wasn't.

So our hero and the girl are doing a roller skating montage around the store, when they clumsily run into these two escaped criminals, aiming guns at them, while they were roller skating around the Target aisles. Knocking everyone backwards in a completely unnatural and hilarious way, into the display of TDK audio cassette tapes. Spilling them all over the floor. 

In an equally unnatural and hilarious way.

And those cassettes were on sale too!

This movie really dragged once these two showed up. Then it got stupid and the whole movie lost it's way. Bad storytelling by including stuff that makes no sense and just doesn't need to be there.

******

Before Laura and I officially were together, in the summer of 2011, we were talking over facebook about “So Long Stinktown”. (One of many different working titles for my planned Coon Rapids series of zines, that I had been infrequently writing from 2003 to 2016.) I had mentioned to her that I didn’t have much for photographs of the old Coon Rapids Target shopping center. 

She told me that she didn’t either, however her father had worked in the former Target Auto Center in the early 1970’s. Given his personal connection to the building, he had a keen interest in what was going on there as the area changed. When the Target building was demolished in August 2010, he’d driven over to take photographs of the demolition. (Awesome!)

She gave me a set of his Target demolition photos, for use in the Coon Rapids themed editions of Wasted Quarter. Once that was shelved permanently in 2016, I knew this would be the best place for them. Once I figured out exactly what I was doing with it.

August 26, 2010

Entering Target from the east side entrance, off Crooked Lake Blvd.

The former Auto Center would be closest to you in this picture. 

You can see where the garage bays used to be, before Target walled them over.

Most of the parking lot had been blocked off for equipment storage, demolition waste and the start of ripping out the parking lot itself. 

Target looked to have been about 2/3 demolished at this point, with the old Goodwill (and older Applebaums) on the west side, fairly intact.

Funny, the stop sign at (what used to be) the front doors of Target is standing.

As well as those two rather cool light poles.

Drive around behind Target...

East side, with the auto center up front, and Firestone off in the distance. This section of the property would soon see construction of the new Coon Rapids Ice Arena. The entrance of which would likely have been the entrance to the Target Auto Center, nearly 50 years ago.

Maybe the outdoor rink next to the indoor arena, would be a better space comparison.

Kind of mean of the demolition crew to place multiple banks of dirt, blocking view of all the interesting demolition going on behind them. 

Check out those classic Sony Walkman's! Or those great dual cassette boomboxes. Too bad it's cut off at the bottom. This page really makes me want to go out and mow the lawn while listening to cassette tapes, copied from the Dr. Demento show. Nowadays when I'm mowing the lawn, it's sometimes to MP3's made from those old Dr. Demento cassettes, now played through my phone.

Funny what 30 years of technology can do...

$13 for ten packs of 3.5" floppy disks! That's nearly 20MB of storage for around 3 hours of Perkins pay. (Coon Rapids Blvd. Perkins, being my job in September 1991.) Seeing this really hammers home what that 30 years of technology can do...

It’s really too bad there are no video games from the fall of 1991 on sale or featured in the ads this week. I did buy quite a few of my NES and SNES games from the Coon Rapids Target.

Fast forward about 4 years, this copy of Earthbound for the SupaNoFreindo was the last thing I ever purchase from the Coon Rapids Target, in the fall of 1995. At that point, that particular Target was one of the last places I went for things I needed/wanted. By January, 1996, I was living closer to the Northtown Target. By October of 1996, I was living in Colorado.

Earthbound is known today as one the top cult favorites games ever made for the SNES. Complete used sets routinely sell for THOUSANDS of dollars. I'm missing only the scratch & sniff stickers... Still, just an all time classic game. 

So thanks, Coon Rapids Target!

My former roommate donated his Coon Rapids Target Discount Card to The Archives, when we lived together in 1996. He asked me to not try to use it. Why would I have done that? I’m going to save it for 23 years, then put it on the internet... DUH!

August 27, 2010

One day later had seen significant progress in removing the former Target auto center. And the Target itself. Almost all of the east wall was now gone. There also appears to be no roof left on most of the building at all.

Besides a little shelter at the Goodwill.

Shovels are sorting out the debris into different piles for recycling. 

South wall is still intact for the entire length of the rapidly disappearing building.

Target red accents still mark the old storage areas.

Great shot of the Goodwill entrance. Any time you can get the full facade, with open doors to a demolished building inside, that's about the BEST demolition picture you can get!

A segment of the south wall looks about to collapse on it's own. All we need is a bird to land on it... Then there's that sweet Emergency Exit door hanging open. The stripe of Target red with Helvetica white letters announcing Emergency Exit, is even showing!

Speaking of avoiding an emergency...

Condoms are briefly shown when our two criminal interlopers are preparing their getaway. One of them grabs a box, since they are intending to take Jennifer Connelly with them. Sure, they're shown irresponsibly waving their guns around, but careful enough to remember protection.

Meaning that in 9 months, they wouldn't need to steal things from the Target Baby section.

August 30, 2010

Three days later and the entrance to the Goodwill is still awesome!

Back when Target opened, this used to be Applebaums grocery store. They closed up here in (or around) 1980, when a new grocery store would be built on the west edge of the parking lot. This would anchor a new retail center, with about 10 storefronts.

Instead of expanding their retail floor space, after the closure of Applebaums, Target just walled it off. Some larger display fixture were sometimes stored in the grocery store space, but it wasn't used much for inventory. Which was still kept behind the retail area, along the south wall.

Those two light poles are still standing! I really hope they were saved at this point, getting a new life at a new property. Would have been really cool if they could have been reused at the new Coon Rapids Ice Arena. They would have had to be moved though. In this picture, they're probably sitting just in front of the goal line. 

Looking east across the Target parking lot. 

South wall being removed carefully.

They could have just let it fall over...

I should have Photoshopped the hose out of the picture, so I could have claimed that guy just peed it over!

The last of the Coon Rapids Target demolition photos, that Laura's father took, is probably my favorite. 

ENHANCE!

The wall segment that fell away here, included the double doors in the last photo. Exposing not only the doors fallen down the exterior staircase, but also the extra cool Target innards leftover. 

Not much, but something!

******

If you wanted to know what this land was used for, decades before even Target arrived here, check out the following Coon Rapids Herald story (January 2014) on Bill Peterson's research of Mississippi Golf Course. Peterson, who used to work with my dad many years ago, wrote a story about the little known Coon Rapids golf course.

Located roughly at the intersection of Coon Rapids Blvd. and Crooked Lake Blvd., The Mississippi Golf Course opened in 1931, but closed in 1936, due to competition with Greenhaven, in Anoka. After closing, the land was sold and turned into a mix of housing and retail, with Mississippi Elementary School taking a big chunk of it. 

******

Gym Dandies...

Ugh… Lousy pun...

The last two pages of Target ads usually ran cheaper, stock-up type merchandise. Enjoyed seeing that timeless Motrin and Tylenol packaging again. Not to mention the Target Honors brand of socks.

Then there’s the photo of the overproduced 1991 baseball card sets on sale that week. Making the placement of this ad, even more perfect. No matter what the sale price for these sets was, you can still get any (or all) of them much cheaper today. Not that anyone is looking for 1991 baseball cards. Trust me on that...

Goodwill renovated the west end of the Coon Rapids Target in 2006. It seemed like a strange move to me. Target left the property in 1998, and other than a stretch of time serving as an indoor flea market, in the early 2000's (that was a bundle of code violations, until the city shut it down), it didn't have a tenant for an 8 year stretch.

(Sadly, the city also didn't let Crazy Carl hold a Rave there either. But that's another story completely.)

I don't know if they even got four years of business in, before getting boot in favor of Icey progress. 

But don't feel bad for Goodwill, they landed in the warm welcoming arms of Old Country Buffet. Who themselves had also moved to Riverdale, leaving a non-Target sized big box vacancy, in the Coon Rapids Square shopping center across the Boulevard. Goodwill made the easy transition and still hold this space today, 13 years later.

I was only inside the ex-Target flavor of Goodwill once. That was in 2008 (I think) when I was back in town. The Namer of this Blog, his wife and I were hanging out, and they suggested we check out the Coon Rapids Target Goodwill. Great idea! Wish I would have had a camera with me then...

Standard second hand fare in the store, what you'd expect from any Goodwill across the country. We were amusing ourselves in the "electronics" section, and found this gem in the software bin. Who buys software from the Goodwill?

Before I go any further, these are not my pictures. I was too short-sighted that afternoon to cough up the less than $2 it would have cost to acquire this gold. Billvis and Gorehead were the key here. We referenced Billvis and Gorehead so much that week, but until I had proof it existed, I was beginning to think I'd made it up in my mind.

Putting this story together, I made quite the effort to dig up anything I could find about Billvis and Gorehead. I forgot all about it being part of a larger screensaver software bundle package, with copyright dates ranging from 1994-1999. (Heheheheheh... Screensavers...) But this was it. Reading the back of this box 15 years ago, provided literal MINUTES of hilarity burned into my subconscious, that I went through effort like this to document it.

So here you go, in all their glory!

His shirt says tax and spend!

Get it?!

Right wingers should really stop trying to be funny. They’re just really bad at it…

Still wish I would have bought this box. It needed to be in the Archives.

Goodbye Target/Applebaums/Goodwill.

******

This photo from 2006 is my only shot of the Rainbow Foods shopping center open in any capacity. Built in (roughly) 1980, the purpose was to separate the grocery store from Target. 

Rainbow Foods previously occupied the largest retail store in the complex, shown here as Big Lots. Rainbow moved along with Target, to anchor the southern part of Riverdale, in the late 1990’s. The grocery store transitioned into a Jubilee Foods, but that didn’t last long before Big Lots moved in. They stayed until they were last business to remain open in the complex, closing in early 2010.

(Thanks Googles!)

I’m not sure if Applebaums ever moved into this complex, or if it was Rainbow Foods from day one. 

My mom missed the Target demolition, but stopped by the site in October 2010, and sent these pictures to Colorado.

Target had been completely demolished by now. All of the building debris was gone, and the former parking lot has been peeled off and removed as well. It's likely that work had already begun on the new Ice Arena, possibly explaining the piles of dirt scattered around where the parking lot was. 

Turning clockwise about 45 degrees, here's the end of the Rainbow Shopping Center (Did this ever have an official name? I always called it the Rainbow Strip Mall.

The entire shopping center closed and all storefronts were boarded up by the time Big Lots left, and the demolition clock on the place started ticking. I don't remember anywhere near everything that operated here during it's near 30 year lifespan, so here's a few that I do remember.

Payless Shoes seemingly had a presence in every shopping center back in the 1980's. Pretty sure they leased the southernmost space, on the left side of this picture.

There was a Pet Store here somewhere, I think...

JCPenney operated a small catalog pickup store towards the south end as well. That opened up in the early 1980's, and kept going well into the late 1990's. Our family was big into JCPenney, and it seemed we stopped by here at least once a week to pick up catalog orders.

In August 1993, JCPenney's Coon Rapids Catalog Pickup Store brought me a SupaNoFriendo! Still to this day one of my favorite home video game systems. Now I had something to do after getting off work at the 99 Spillihp, at 7 in the morning!

JCPenney's original catalogue store label, affixed to the box. I was really hoping it had some identifying marks, tracing it to the Coon Rapids store, but I can't read bar code. 

Little Caesars Pizza (Pizza) was close to the JCPenney and Payless Shoes end as well. They supplied many a D&D meal back in the Junior High School days. About 10 years later, several of my friends worked there. Several more hung out with the ones that worked there. I was never around during this, but I heard stories about it from my group of friends that was hanging out with me at the 99 Spillihip. Some of that crowd crossed over. In a way, I kind of considered the Coon Rapids Little Caesar's to be 99 Spillihp South. 

Unremembered Name Video Store was next door to Little Caesars, for a while, that had a pretty decent selection of NES games to rent. Many Friday nights in the late 1980's included shopping at Red Owl and/or Target, pick up an order from JCPenney, pizzas from Caesars, and a movie or two from this video store. 

Sandy's Sweet Shop was still open in 2006, when I took the picture with the open Big Lots. If you spent any considerable amount of time in Coon Rapids between 1980 and 2005, you ate cake made at Sandy's Sweet Shop. They were good.

Anoka County had an official Drivers License Center in the Rainbow Strip Mall as well. It was next door to Sandy's. So you could have a cake made while you waited for your number to be called. Then, you could go back and have a second cake made because your number is still 47 away from being called.

Not sure the timeline, or if this is the same License Bureau that was previously at the Village 10 Shopping Center. Before that was demolished, and/or before it moved over to Foley and Highway 10. By the movie theater that replaced Village 4, and on top of Pine Cone Nursery. So are they the same or not? Coon Rapids reconfiguring can be confusing.

The Rainbow Strip Mall had it's own Radio Shack, and an earlier edition of Tafoya Salon, before they moved elsewhere.

But we all remember the Bump n Score Video Arcade, next door to Rainbow in the mid 1980's. They had a deal on certain days, where if you paid $6 at the door, all games were set to free play. I didn't get there nearly enough... However, it was a great place to kill some time while my mom was buying stuff next door at Rainbow Foods. Or picking up an order from JCPenney.

Rainbow Foods into Jubilee Foods into Big Lots into boarded up doomed retail. The covered area on the far right of this picture used to be where you could park your car for loading the groceries that would come out of the building on a conveyor belt. The former cart corral has been moved up to the curbing, separating the parking area from the access roads between them.

Let’s tear this sucker down!!!

Almost one year after my mom took the pictures of the boarded up Rainbow Strip Mall, I was in town at the time it was being demolished. Unfortunately, it was already getting dark when I arrived on scene, so the low lighting comes into plays far too much. While I didn't get one that lined up exactly with the previous picture of Rainbow Foods --> Jubilee Foods --> Big Lots --> boarded up doomed retail.

And I was a couple of days late. There's maybe 15% of the anchor still standing.

Work seems to be shifting to tearing out the parking lot and curbing. 

"Can we go to Rainbow and get some eggs?" Asked Vinnie & the Stardusters, in their 1999 megahit Quesadilla.

Sorry Vinnie, in 2010, you can't go to this Rainbow. The pavement is gone.

Cart corral overturned and the store itself is just about completely gone now too…

Looking across the store, with the loading dock in the far right. Some other parts of a wall in the far back left, an orange dumpster in the middle. And one of remaining pillars, no longer supporting anything, and likely gone in the morning.

The old Rainbow Foods car loading area.

Standing on the north side of Rainbow, looking across the store. Trees obscuring the view. Forced to watch the building that's kept them company for 30 years, being ripped apart. Before getting sawed down afterwards. I wish some of the mature trees in this shopping complex would have been kept. Since the end game was just a large open space park, a few of these trees would have really helped the place look better.

Northwest corner of Rainbow. The new Coon Rapids Ice Arena can be seen of the left side of this picture. It may or may not have been open at this point. I don't remember going over to the Ice Center when I was here in 2011. I did in 2012.

Oh, just as a reminder...

Choose Target, for all your X-Mess photo card needs!

And remember...

Sign posted on the back, west facing wall of Rainbow.

The largest amount of wall still standing on the property. 

A little further down, some stairs and an emergency exit.

I'm pretty sure you can vaguely see the opposite side of this door in one of the previous photos. 

Loading docks that have been bricked off years earlier. 

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that graffiti is Low Key...

Non-bricked off loading docks, on the opposite side of the loading area part of the building. Love the upside down Furniture Pick-Up sign, dating back to the Big Lots days. 

Facing east, there's Firestone through the trees.

Poor uneven wobbly shelf left outside to watch the demolition of it's home.

Ironically dumped in front of another "No Dumping Allowed" sign.

Speaking of dump...

In my 48 years of going in and out of retail stores, I don't think I've ever seen a display of cans piled up this way. This is a Hollywood thing. And when you see a stack of cans like this, you know it's just a matter of seconds before someone goes crashing through it.

And it looks like Tide Laundry Detergent was a big time sponsor of this movie. I don't think I've seen that much displayed Tide in an open and functioning Target 

Destroying stuff is more fun!

What was currently left of Rainbow. The loading docks, and the back corner of where the former grocery store moved back to meet up with all of the smaller retail stores in the strip mall.

Some of that wall, with some very amateur tagging.

Back side of some combination of Bump n' Score, Sandy's Sweet Shop, Radio Shack and/or the DMV. I wish those early 1970's era parking lot lights could have been saved for reuse with the Ice Center and Boulevard Park. Just something that pays homage to what used to be here.

The isolated standing corner of Rainbow. Midwest Shoppes sits behind and left of this piece of former grocery store. Fir of Firestone, on the right. 

Walking all the way down and around to the south side of the Rainbow Strip Mall. This area was fenced off, and I didn't cross those lines. There wasn't much to see here as the southern parts of the building were reduced to nothing but small piles of concrete, resting on the flat foundation. Nothing that really resembled commerce anymore.

Final look at Rainbow Foods --> Jubilee Foods --> Big Lots --> boarded up doomed retail, before leaving for my former roommate's Brooklyn Park townhome. We're going to watch the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen, but the Rainbow demolition caused an unplanned but necessary side mission.

And I think we did and excellent job in completion!

Unfortunately the low light of dusk hindered many of these desired photographs. But I couldn’t exactly wait for conditions to improve. Target provided these “Your photography sucks, and here’s why!” slips in late 1980’s developing jobs that came out less than spectacular. I didn’t need Target to tell me this evening’s pictures were subpar…

I checked back on the Rainbow demolition on September 21, 2011, two days after the previous round of photos.

This was all that was left of the Rainbow strip mall, besides foundations and shrinking piles of broken concrete. The curbing and sign poles were all still in place, but the pavement was stripped down to bare dirt, resembling fresh golden brown waffles.

Second shot, just south of where the grocery store was. Looking out across the Rainbow parking lot, to where the south end of the strip mall used to be. Piles of dirt rise from where the foundations were removed. To the left, and off in the distance, you can see the Robinwood Apartments. 

The roof of the rental car I drove to Minnesota is featured at the bottom of the picture.

I liked that car.

Meanwhile, a few blocks west of here...

(Joe) Cook Memorial Arena

Opened in 1973, closed in November, 2010.

I took this picture in September, 2011. I don't think I was ever inside Cook. Wasn't into hockey as a kid, and was terrible at ice skating on the small frozen ponds, scattered around the trees behind my parent's house. I miss walking around back there, before the Oaks was ever a thing...

Even though I was never inside, I did see the Mighty Ducks Disney movie. The children's movie that spawned an actual NHL Expansion Franchise, had a couple of scenes shot inside Cook Memorial Arena in Coon Rapids. The Children's Mighty Ducks team took on the fictional Cardinals of unnamed Minnesota town, in the film. I saw that movie at Village 4, a (demolished long ago) theater in Coon Rapids. 

So I was once inside (Joe) Cook Memorial Arena, once removed. 

(Joe) Cook Memorial Arena was demolished in January, 2012.

I'd heard Cook Arena had closed, but I didn't know when it was going to be torn down. Either way, I was living in Colorado, so it's not like I'd get to document it. Longtime friend of Wasted Enterprises, Aaron Allen, snapped these photos of the Cook Arena demolition, on January 20, 2012. He posted them to the Cook Arena facebook page, and emailed me higher resolution copies. He thought I would like them for Wasted Quarter. 

Now that's an understatement! These two pictures are awesome! Some of my favorite photos are of buildings partially demolished, with generous bonus points awarded for identifying marks revealed inside.

 

The Coon Rapids Cardinal colors and logos painted on the crumbling walls is so awesome. With a lot of mid-demolition pictures, there's little context. You can look at them and say: "Well, that could be anything..." Looking at those walls, there's no question what this building was. (If you're from Coon Rapids that is...)

Thank you so much for getting me these photos! Glad you were in the area at the time!

The reason for (Joe) Cook Memorial Arena’s removal from this plane of existence?

Coon Rapids Ice Arena opened in September, 2011.

The entire Target shopping center area was cleared away for Boulevard Park, headlined by the new Ice Arena  At 58,000 square-feet it was significantly larger than Cook. The increase in size allowed for more seating and expanded locker rooms, better concessions (though I doubt they have a tasty Patty Melt available) and more parking than Cook Arena’s limited space offered.

With the new Coon Rapids Ice Center opening where part of the old Target once stood, that still left a lot of open land where the rest of the stores were. Instead of filling it with stuff the city didn't really need, they actually made decent use of the land. 

After the Ice Center opened, a large single structure of senior apartments was built on the east end of the property. (Shown here, being built, in August, 2016.) Within walking distance of Walgreens!

The rest of the land was left open for a large park, aptly named, Boulevard Park. They added a Splash Pad for the kids, instead of a pool, because reasons. This large open space next to the Ice Arena, would also hold the city's annual 4th of July Carnival and Fireworks. All of these rides, trailers and booths are sitting on top of the land once used by Firestone, KFC, Taco Bell, White Castle and the Midwest Shoppes. That paved path replaces the old Target parking lot/road in the Firestone picture from 2013.

I wish they'd put a bunch of trees on the land. The large piece of vacant flat land appears like something bad happened here and it was never rebuilt. 

And I wouldn't say that about the old T-42. It was good for what it was.

In case you were wondering, as of April 23, 2023, the former (Joe) Cook Memorial Arena looks like this. 

The land sat vacant for over a decade, but will soon be the home of the new Coon Rapids Fire Station.

That’s a good use for it.

Coon Rapids Target receipts were very yellow on August 10, 1989.

When my mom had 10 rolls of film developed for just under $37!

Before I go, here's an old Wasted Quarter cartoon that Freelance Dan drew back in 1994, mocking me for brief infatuation with a cashier from the Coon Rapids Target. There's no context. 

Just the way it should be!

Okay... That’s enough...

Time to go do something else!

Yes... After writing all of this, Grandpa needs to lay down for a while...