New Golden Valley Walgreens is Now Open

Construction on Golden Valley's second Walgreens store began back in April, and this weekend the store is officially open for business.

The store, located near the southeast corner of Medicine Lake Road and Winnetka Avenue, opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday.

"People are really excited," said store manager Mike Palin.  "It's a new building, it's got some pretty fancy displays, and we think people will find it extremely convenient."

But not everyone is so enthused. Katie Walton says she lives about halfway between the new store and the located next to right off of MN-100.

"That location is in an existing shopping center," Walton said.  "But this (new store) is practically right next to the cute and the .  I'm just not a fan of these big chain stores coming in and taking away a neighborhood's personality."

A large CVS store is currently under construction and expected to open soon on the northwest corner of the Winnetka-Medicine Lake intersection.  And that's actually one reason Walgreens said the new location made sense.

"We look for traffic patterns, demographics and competition, and we want to build drug stores on the best corners in America," said Robert Elfinger,. "Based on that, we think this is very good for us and for Golden Valley."

The new Walgreens has a drive-through pharmacy, but is not a 24-hour store.  The nearest 24-hour location is in Brooklyn Park.

Both Golden Valley Walgreens locations will be open on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but the pharmacies will be closed.

You can access the new Walgreens at 2500 Winnetka Ave. N from northbound or southbound Winnetka Avenue, and there's also a back entrance you can use off of Rhode Island Avenue.