History of Shinders

Shinders was a well known Minnesota store, selling newspapers, magazines, comic books, sports cards & gaming cards as well as…additional collectibles, all around the Twin Cities market when they finally closed up shop in 2007.

The Beginning

Started was started in 1916 by brothers Al, Daniel and Harry Shinder (or possibly five brothers, depending on which source you believe), who sold newspapers on the street after moving to the United States from Russia. In the early 20s, Harry acquired a newsstand on the corner of Hennepin & 6th Street in downtown Minneapolis.

Brother Daniel then bought a spot near the corner of 7th & Hennepin, and the company thrived–although by the 70’s, the location of the store was known as a rougher part of town–part of the reason that my Dad always hesitated in taking me to Shinders when I discovered the store in the late 80’s/early 90’s, the reputation the downtown store had from his time living in Minneapolis when he was in college.

The Joel Shinder Era

In the late 70s, Daniel’s son Joel took over the company after Daniel passed away due to cancer, and expanded the company in the 80s to the suburbs–which is where the owners of this site first encountered Shinders, at the Edina location at the Liesure Lane Shopping Center.

Joel Shinder expanded the Shinders brand to 13-14 stores around the Twin Cities market, and helped them become known as the top place to get sports cards & comic books in Minnesota, as well as hard to find specialty magazines…including those special magazines in the back room.

What Happened to Shinders?

In 2003, Joel sold the company to Robert Weisberg, who lost control of the company to Wells Fargo due to financial, legal and personal issues. The last eight stores of the chain officially closed in July of 2007.

Beyond Shinders

Some former employees of the company attempted to start “Beyond Shinders” shortly after the closing, taking over the leases of several locations, but those stores have since closed as well.

This Website – Shinders.com

As for this version of this website…we have nothing to do with any of the old stores or the old company, other than being former customers throughout our youth, college and post college lives. From begging our parents to vistis that Edina location in our youth, hitting the Roseville shop during our college days at the University of Minnesota, and checking out (and often being disappointed at) the Burnsville location after getting married.

I’m not even sure what I was doing the day that I ended up buying the domain name, but something made me think of all the time I had spent at Shinders, and since my day job is in the digital marketing field, I frequently will look up domains of old companies to find what happened to them. I fully expected the domain to be an auction landing page, or a full-blown asian spam site–but lo and behold, it was available on the free market, and from what I can tell on the Wayback Machine, nothing significant had existed on the domain since 2007.

I’ve had a couple of offers to buy the domain, but nothing that’s made me consider actually doing it. I’ve got some ideas of things to do with the site–I just need the time to work on it…and 100 other projects I have. More to come!

If you’re interested in touching base, feel free to contact me!