The Holly Center boasts many exciting shops!
Located in Fridley, MN off of Central Avenue, the Holly Center definitely qualifies as a dumpy strip mall.
Offering a smattering of mostly local businesses, Holly Center houses your typical shitty inner-ring suburb strip mall establishments and tries to be your one-stop shop. I guess it doesn’t do that bad of a job…after all, it has…
A tobacco store to get your smoke on. Earn those Marlboro Miles!
An auto parts place to soup up your Camero
A flower shop to show her you care
A shitty local pizza place with cardboard-style crust,a chinese restaurant & an Old Country Buffet to load up on MSG and other preservatives
A plasma center to make some cash. Why bother getting a job?
A Snap Fitness to work off your meal from Holly Center’s fine dining establishments
His & Her Salons: A Cost Cutters for the ladies to trim the mall bangs, and a barber shop for the guys to trim the mullet
and a year-round H&R Block to get the feds off your ass.
The eye-catching architecture of the Holly Center
See – it’s got it all. Except for a check cashing place and a pawn shop. Then the circle would be complete.
So many stores, so little time
Treat yourself to culinary punishment at its finest by bellying up to the Old Country Buffet.
Holly Center’s biggest draw is the Old Country Buffet, which is basically your school cafeteria masquarding as a restaurant. Love eating microwaved food that’s been sitting under heat lamps for the last 4 hours, protected only by a sneeze guard? This place is for you! OBC offers low quality cuts of meat as well as your choice over 100 appetizers, salad toppings, fruit, veggies, and more! And on Wednesday nights – visit the taco bar! If you have a taste for institutional cuisine, you’ll love the OCB. So if you ever enjoyed a meal in a hospital cafeteria or served time in prison, I guess this means you. Bon Apetit!
The Plasma Center used to be a Snyders. I made a few Beanie Baby runs here back in the day
The parking lot is a bitch to exit. If you’re trying to get back on University Avenue, THINK TWICE! Holly Center’s parking lot exits to the right, onto a one-way, meaning the only way to get back on University is to swing an illegal U-Turn, lest you want to drive all the way down to West River Road. Pray the fuzz isn’t anywhere near!
Here are a few “vintage” Holly Center items. These photos are from a Fridley 1999 50th Anniversary Celebration booklet.
A list of Holly Center businesses and shops from 1999
In the early '70s, Holly Center had a Penny's Market and a Ben Franklin
#1 by Scott McCormack on October 1, 2008 - 12:32 am
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Very funny stuff! I grew up in Fridley and moved to Tennessee in 1975. Use to shop at Penny’s and Red Owl, ect. My brother is a higher up at OCB, but found your rants comical. Best friends mom used to work at Snyders. Speaking of which had a kick ass fountain bar in the 70′s. good work.
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#2 by Christine Rietsch on August 27, 2009 - 3:06 pm
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Recently one of the local gift shops in there has moved down to be next to the plasma center. There is a furniture store spread across 3 of the store fronts as well (and not near eachother–the owner has to run around).
The gift shop is chintsy, but if you are looking for good beaded jewelry–I’M IN THERE. I’m doing things from hippy beads to very elaborate stuff for the Renaissance Festival.
And Old Country has improved over the years. There actually is a decent manager in Holly Center who is making sure GOOD food is put out. It’s not casino buffet quality, but it’s good!
#3 by Alexia Smith on October 1, 2009 - 12:15 pm
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I agree Holly Center does suck and is in need of some serious remodeling, But how ever Ron’s Barbers and Stylists deserves a little credit. The original owner (Ron) Has been trimming up customers since the days of Pennys, and has made more friends and family then most do in a entire life time. He also had touched thousands of lives with his kind heart and funny jokes. Ron’s holds some of the best stylists in the business! If you want a kick ass foil, color, or cut come see the great stylists of Ron’s!
#4 by Patrick on November 18, 2009 - 10:19 pm
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The IBR Plasma is now a different Plasma company, and I’m pretty sure the hair cutting places and H&R Block are gone as well.
#5 by CeCe on December 18, 2009 - 1:41 pm
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Is it wrong to secretly wish that a meteor would come crashing down into this embarassment of a “shopping complex”?
The flower shop is nice but the other places are obviously covers for illegal activity. Who shops at these places??? And just when you think there may be hope for a better business moving in… a plasma center moves in!!! What next? A pawn shop? Honestly, if things don’t get better around Fridley, I’m taking my money and leaving for greener pastures. Maybe somewhere near a coffee shop, ethnic delis, quality bakeries, fine dining, etc, etc. I’ve been defending Fridley too long – I give up.
#6 by Christine Rietsch on January 15, 2010 - 12:31 am
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Since the gift shop has moved locations things have really improved!!! Getting better product and more variety in now. It helps that there are more of us involved now trying to make the store a big thing (one person can’t do it alone!)
There is now a cake making store in there, the flower shop, still the OCB, the plasma center, and a small gym for people to work out in.
Not much we can do about the parking lot entrance though.
#7 by Rachel Rose on July 12, 2010 - 9:01 am
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I live near here; it’s actually got some really great local merchants. The piza place is one of my faves, and they just opened a large cake and candy supplies store that is always packed….this place has a wall full of cake molds you can rent for just $3/24 hrs. It’s a bit dated, yes—but I’ll bet that makes the rent more affordable to entrepeneurs trying to get started. I will continue to support this local center!
#8 by Miss Anthrope on July 23, 2010 - 12:47 pm
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A few years ago, there was a store in Holly Center called “Whatnot” (oh, how I wish I were joking). I could not live another minute without knowing what on earth was sold in a store called “Whatnot”, so I bravely ventured in. This store made Ax-Man look like a brand-new Target. Flea markets are more sensibly organized. I’m fairly certain their business model involved raiding Goodwill’s dumpsters for “saleable” merchandise. Shockingly, this store doesn’t appear to have survived. Yikes.