The TRU that used to be here in Duluth turned massive profits -- I know because I worked there for 4-1/2 yrs. It was a complete surprise when they closed it (to everyone, customers & employees). In MN especially, the farther away you are from Mpls/StP the less important you are. It's like a bullseye painted on the Twin Cities with concentric circles radiating outward, for everything -- education, construction, you name it. (We had massive damage done to both commercial & residential property several yrs ago due to heavy flooding & only a few businesses were able to get aid -- the majority of the commercial & ZERO residential victims saw nothing. It was like pulling teeth to even get anyone to come tour the destruction in the first place. It was awful -- cars were swallowed up due to huge sections of the roads/streets caving in; bridges collapsed; there was a lot of damage. Even months later.)
When they closed my TRU, they said it was because there were too many in the MN area -- too much overlap eating at their profit margin. But they kept all 8 stores in the Twin Cities area. Some stores were only TWO BLOCKS away from one another!! My closest TRU (up until last fall) was the St Cloud store -- 1-1/2 hrs away. (And originally St Cloud had 2 TRUs.) Now I have to drive even farther (an additional hour+) & they rarely carry minimates. Luke & a few others have mentioned that very few MN TRUs even carry them anymore.