Needle Doctor relocating to St. Louis Park

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Jerry Raskin's Needle Doctor is set to vacate its space on 14th Ave. in Dinkytown this Friday, after 30 years spent repairing turntables and selling audio equipment in its current location. The Minnesota Daily got the scoop today from manager Ken Bowers, who said "It just doesn't make sense for us to be here financially."

The store will relocate to an expanded location on Excelsior Blvd. in St. Louis Park.

Anyone who has set foot in the Needle Doctor, the cozy shop nestled next to Al's Breakfast, has surely noticed that most of the company's business comes from the mail orders it fills in the back of the store -- in fact, those mail orders attribute to 90 percent of the company's revenue. So it's understandable that the store could operate just as successfully removed from the heart of the city. Still, it's sad to watch another of Dinkytown's longstanding staples shutter its doors.

From the Daily:

Now Dinkytown is mostly students passing though, Bowers said.

"It's not a shopping destination. I mean, to come here is one thing, but there's not really anything to buy around here. The bookstores are nice, but even the bookstores are hurting," Bowers said. "It's just not a ton of retail. It's pretty generic and it will become even more generic now."

The new store is expected to open this coming Monday, pending success of the move. "If all goes well over the weekend, we'll be up and running at the new location on Monday, September 27th," reads the Needle Doctor's site.

The new location is 6006 Excelsior Blvd, two blocks west of Highway 100.