The decline of Rainbow Foods arguably started in 2000, when Fleming put Rainbow and several other chains up for sale. At the time, possible buyers of Rainbow Foods included grocery giants
Safeway and
Albertsons. Albertsons was very close to buying Rainbow Foods, but backed out of the deal. Fleming Companies announced in April 2003 that it had filed for reorganization under
Chapter 11 bankruptcy. When Fleming sold Rainbow Foods in 2003, Albertsons was a Rainbow suitor, but backed out again. In 2003,
Fleming Companies decided to sell 31 of the chains leases to
Milwaukee based
Roundys for 82.5 million dollars. Fleming decided to close the remaining 12 locations it had owned and pull out of the chain all together. In a surprise move on May 7, 2014,
Roundys announced that it had sold 18 of its Rainbow Foods stores to a consortium of area competitors and businesses for 65 million dollars. In September 2014, four months after buying the Rainbow Foods location in West St. Paul, supermarket owner Jerry's Enterprises said it now planned to close the store in November. In a letter sent to the city, Jerry's said the company had "developed plans based on business considerations" to close its Rainbow store at 1660 S. Robert St. The Rainbow on Minneapolis' Lake Street was also slated to close, Jerry's said. The stores joined nine other Rainbow supermarkets that were shut down in July, 2014, after Rainbow's owner Roundys left the Twin Cities market. After the closures the brand only had four remaining stores. The two Rainbow Foods stores on Lake Street and on Robert Street were said to close by November 9, 2014. After the closures there were only four Rainbow stores left. Another Rainbow store, in Plymouth, was converted into a Cub in July 2016, which closed two years later and is now a
Hy-Vee store. After this conversion, three Rainbow foods remained. On September 21, 2017, the Rainbow Foods at the Midway Shopping Center in St. Paul closed. It closed due to a
soccer stadium being built on the property, requiring the existing store and part of the mall to be demolished. The Richfield HUB location off 66th street closed in March 2018, leaving one remaining Rainbow location in
Maplewood. On September 14, 2018, it was announced that the Rainbow Foods in Maplewood, would close on Monday, September 17, At the time of its closing, the Maplewood Rainbow was owned and operated by
SuperValu, which also owned the Cub across the street. == References ==