On an average day, customers trickle in and out of Amigos One Stop, shopping for beans, plantains, meat — and even paying bills, cashing checks, and sending money back home through the little kiosk inside the store that helps with money transfers. Old-school salsa music fills the store, alternating with Arabic music.
In December, the south Minneapolis corner market fell silent. As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents targeted neighborhoods along Lake Street, workers stayed home, and families were afraid to step outside for basic necessities.
Amigos co-owner Ammar Aref said his store, a hub for Ecuadorian immigrants, had to find new ways to meet a community that was sheltering in place. His wasn’t the only local business that pivoted. Opposite Amigos One Stop, Modern Times Cafe changed its name to Post Modern Times Cafe and moved to a donation-only model to accommodate customers.
“During the surge, it was terrible. We saw our business being transformed from a very busy place to like, almost like a ghost town. [We] would get many, many calls from people asking us, how safe is it for them to come to the store? And they’re asking us, if they’re in the store, what we do if ICE comes. And even when customers came in, they would always be going by the door and just looking around, and they were like panic, 24 hours panic,” Aref told Sahan Journal.
Aref, 44, is a Kuwaiti-born Palestinian, and lived in Brazil and Uruguay before moving to Minnesota in 1998. He and his brother Muhamed ran the business with their father beginning in 2009 before the brothers took over in 2021 following their father’s death.
Amigos One Stop sells essential grocery items for the South and Central American immigrants in the neighborhood, especially Ecuadorians. Located two blocks from Lake Street in south Minneapolis, the store has been open every day since 2009 barring two days — in 2021 when its original owner passed away, and on Jan. 30 this year for the general strike to protest ICE action in Minnesota.
The neighborhood tienda expanded gradually over the years, from a corner store selling candy, cigarettes and snacks to a small grocery and eventually, the convenience store in its current shape, selling everything from fresh fruit and vegetables, to rice, beans, noodles, beverages and fresh meat.
Tamara Ramos has worked in the store for two years. She is behind the register as well as helping customers with cash transfers from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Before the surge, “A lot of more people came in. And the time used to go faster because we used to work more,” Ramos said in Spanish.
Even though she felt scared to come into work, she said she felt proud to work at a store that was stretching its resources to cater to the community, while also keeping an eye out for ICE. “It was something heavier than usual,” she said. “But at least people were keeping fed.”
Operation Metro Surge forced many small businesses to shutter as they lost not just customers but also employees to ICE enforcement fear.
It forced Aref to change gears almost overnight by starting to do deliveries to customers too scared to come to the store. Aref said it was both to keep the business afloat — it was facing heavy financial losses — and also to serve the community.
While mutual aid and volunteer deliveries helped, the store faced a 50 to 60% drop in revenue through the grocery and the money transfer service. Even with the losses, Aref hired two more employees to help with packing and deliveries. “On some occasions, when the customers didn’t have the money to pay, we didn’t charge them because we felt the situation needed,” Aref said.
Carlos Mateo, who lives a block from the store, relied solely on the deliveries and mutual aid during much of December and January. He prefers Amigos One Stop to bigger stores like Target or Cub, because they don’t stock the Ecuadorian food items he needs. Many Target stores also became grounds for ICE activity and detentions, further discouraging customers.
“I cannot compete with Walmart or Cub Foods,” Aref said. “But I can compete with them with the items that is not worth it for them to bring it because they have to focus on the majority of the people, but we focus on who is in our neighborhood.”
Azusena Yucaillo also lives in the neighborhood and is from Ecuador. She calls herself a “permanent customer” of Amigos One Stop and shops exclusively at the store. At the height of the surge, Yucaillo said that she would shop quickly and leave. Other times, Aref would help her find a ride or a taxi back home.
“If it [Amigos One Stop] wouldn’t have been in the neighborhood, a lot of families like mine would’ve gone without food,” she said in Spanish at the store.
While business has started to gradually recover following the announcement of a drawdown, Aref said that it is not yet back to pre-surge traffic. Many of his customers are still facing job insecurity, have been deported or have self-deported. But some regulars have started to shop in person again, even though they are spending less now. “We were really happy to see them, and they were happy to see us,” Aref said. “They can breathe now.”
Aref, too, is breathing a bit easier. But he is also cautious of what the future holds. He said he hopes to continue to adapt as fast as he did during the surge, and continue offering grocery deliveries, as the store did during a recent winter storm.
“Hopefully things will just keep getting better and better, and people start coming back to our store and to other stores like ours, because we depend on every customer that comes,” he said.
