Legendary Scanlon liquor store sold

Gramma Polo's Bottle Shoppe has been a family-owned business for 73 years. Come May 1, that will change. Polo's has been purchased by neighbor Kwik Trip, which will run its third liquor operation in Minnesota.

Tom Romundstad owns the liquor store with his wife, Jodi Polo. He said it's time to retire, seven years after the couple took over the Scanlon-based business from Charlotte Polo, who retired at the age of 90.

"It's one of the oldest family-owned liquor stores in the state," Romundstad said. "We have a huge following and customers have said they are going to miss us."

He said there aren't family members who wanted to take on the business but is confident the new owners will keep customers happy.

"Kwik Trip is a really good company," he said.

Polo's sold a large portion of its store site in 2014 to make room for the Kwik Trip convenience store. The Pantry Restaurant and a strip bar were demolished and the new Kwik Trip and a state-of-the-art Polo liquor store (with solar panels, LED lighting and a beer cave that made use of outside air when temperatures were below 28 degrees) went up.

The Wisconsin-based company has changed the convenience store landscape in the past decade with numerous stores now dotting the region. The nearest Kwik Spirits in Minnesota is down Interstate 35 in Rush City.

Essentia looking at options in Cloquet

Despite a lot of rumors circulating, Essentia Health has not finalized any building purchases in Cloquet. But that doesn't mean they aren't looking.

Communications Director Shannon Dahnke said the health care company "is looking at a number of different properties in the area as we plan for the future of our organization. Nothing is finalized at this point."

Holly Hanson, community development director for the city of Cloquet, said she is well aware of talk around town of Essentia purchasing the former Applebee's building. "That has been the rumor solid now for seven weeks straight," Hanson said. "The county has no transacted file on record to reflect that at this point."

Applebee's closed a year ago after 12 years in Cloquet. It was the victim of slumping revenue for parent company, which closed nearly 200 of its 2,000 restaurants in 2017 and 2018. The property price has been listed as high as $1.9 million and as low as $1 million.

Essentia has clinics in several cities surrounding Duluth, where it has its main regional hospital. While the Essentia system coordinates with medical practitioners in the area, it has no clinics in Cloquet.

Coates to Camping World

National retailer Camping World announced recently that it has acquired Coates RV locations in Hugo and Cloquet.

The company expects to continue expanding in Minnesota with three additional Gander RV locations in Forest Lake, Hermantown and Baxter opening spring and summer of 2019.

It wasn’t clear what changes to the Cloquet area operations would occur, but Thomson Township officials did confirm that Camping World had also purchased all 11 lots owned by Coates RV in the Esko Business Park.

A message was left with the Coates office but there was no call back.