For reasons explained in today’s column (gift link), I spent about six full days of my life at the Hibbing Walmart last year — roughly 150 hours.
We try to mix up our family shopping. We’re fortunate to be able to pay more for better products at other grocery stores, and shop at specialty stores for specific items. But we sometimes can’t ignore the convenience and relatively low prices of Walmart. That’s certainly what attracts my mom, and because I drive her around, that’s where I spend a lot of time.
Some time goes by, and you struggle to remember how it was. Like the intersection of Highways 73 and 169 in Hibbing. I remember before the Walmart, when the cemetery faced an empty field, not far from the mall built the year I was born. Not that long ago, the whole place was just a woody expanse on the way out of town, which is why they put the cemetery there 100 years ago. Now it’s the busiest retail section in all of Hibbing, serving several nearby towns.
Progress. Sort of. Through the veil of nostalgia, we realize what’s been lost as the town grows poorer.
In spending so much time there, I see reasons beyond prices and inventory to pay attention to what’s happening at Walmart.
Read “Under the bright lights of Walmart, an economic story unfolds,” in the Monday, Jan. 19, 2026 edition of the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Aaron J. Brown is a columnist and member of the editorial board for the Minnesota Star Tribune. His new book about Hibbing Mayor Victor Power and his momentous fight against the world’s largest corporation will be out soon.
