[May 17, 2012] Two days left for Green Mercantile store in downtown Duluth Tweet May 17, 2012 (Duluth News Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A downtown Duluth store that championed Earth-friendly products will close for good on Friday. The sluggish economy, downtown construction and a move to Iowa combined to convince owners Dianna and Chris von Rabenau that it was time to close the Green Mercantile store at 209 E. Superior St. "We just finally decided, when we were taking money out of our own pockets to pay the bills, that it was time," Dianna von Rabenau said. "We didn't want to (close it). It makes me cry to think about it." The natural-products store opened in 1999. Dianna von Rabenau, a longtime manager of the Whole Foods Co-op, and her husband bought the store a few years later. The store specialized in non-food, sustainable and socially conscious products. The offerings included household cleaners, office supplies, personal care items, wooden toys, cloth diapers, and clothing and linens made from organically grown cotton. "We doubled sales in a year, and we were on double-digit growth for the next several years," von Rabenau said. The couple expanded the store's offerings, including adding organic pet food and dozens of cleaners, lotions and other items that could be bought in bulk. Then the Norshor Theatre next door was turned into a strip club, which kept customers away, she said. Then downtown construction and sewer projects took away their parking. Then the recession hurt business. "With all the construction and one thing after another, people's patterns changed to what was easy," von Rabenau said. The trend in environmentally friendly products being offered at supermarkets and big-box stores also had an impact, she said. Managing the business became more difficult two years ago when the couple moved to Iowa for Chris von Rabenau's job. He works in information technology for the Iowa City, Iowa-based National Cooperative Grocers Association. "It was hard to run it from here," Diana von Rabenau said in a telephone interview. Plans to close the store were announced April 29. It will not re-open after it closes at 4 p.m. Friday. "We're getting a lot of sad people," said the couple's son, Gerhard von Rabenau, as he worked the sales counter for the store's going-out-of- business sale this week. Prices have been slashed as much as 75 percent. Carolyn Niesen of Duluth, who stops in every three months, was one of them. "I feel terrible," she said with chocolate bars and non-toxic cleaning products in hand. "I feel sick. It just shows as a society we're not ready to put our dollars down." Geni Dahlgren of Duluth was stocking up on toothpaste and skin-care products containing healing herbs she can't find anywhere else. "I'm in shock because there's not too many of them around," she said of the natural-products store. "It's too bad. They do have nice things a lot of people are into." Holding her one-year-old son in her arms, Kristi Heintz of Duluth was shopping in the store's baby supplies section. "It's too bad it's closing," Heintz said. "It's a niche market in town. They have so many things you can't find anywhere, like little wooden toys. There's so much plastic nowadays." With 40 to 75 percent off, shelves were thinning out this week. Even the wooden display cases were for sale. Merchandise remaining after Friday will be sold online, said Dianna von Rabenau, who plans to be out of the building by the end of the month. She doesn't know what's next for herself. But she does know one thing: "I love downtown," she said. "I'm going to miss it. I'm always going to be a Duluthian." ___ (c)2012 the Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, Minn.) Visit the Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, Minn.) at www.duluthnewstribune.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]