Fortune 500 companies

Twenty Fortune 500 Companies call Minnesota home. Minneapolis and St. Paul host seven of them. Just who wins when it comes to being a good home for a mega-corporation?

First, St. Paul:

• Travelers Companies, Inc (#89) - Formerly St. Paul Companies until it merged with Travelers Insurance. They provide insurance. Nothing really sexy there. They have an umbrella logo.
  
• Ecolab (#457) - What is Ecolab? Do they do some sort of ecological research or environmental design? Ecolab is the formerly named Economics Laboratory. One can see why they changed their name, perhaps they just should have brainstormed longer. They make the stuff that cleans and sanitizes the world, including the British Royal Navy. They have a somewhat distinguished building in downtown St. Paul with their name on it.
  

Now, Minneapolis:

• Target (#33) - Target is a true Minnesota institution. We have Wal-Marts here, but people don't go there. Though they occasionally do stupid things, generally people like Target. Plus there is the Target Center. While Target is the largest Fortune 500 company in the Twin Cities, they are far down on the list of number of employees. They must give their money to their shareholders.
  
• U.S. Bancorp (#123) - U.S. Bancorp is headquartered here, but they have a skyscraper in Portland, Oregon. In Minneapolis, they just have a modern highrise downtown. They do, uh, banking stuff. U.S. Bancorp is a really unimaginative name, even by the standards of a financial institution.
  
• Xcel (#251) - Xcel is a major electricity provider in the upper Midwest and Great Plains. They don't have their own building, but there is the Xcel Center. But the Xcel Center is over in St. Paul. Like all other energy companies, Xcel is evil.
  
• Ameriprise Financial (#297) - A financial services company spun off by American Express. They're hip people with a cool building. They also like to keep your money and not pay their agents.
  
• Thrivent Financial for Lutherans (#370) - They are a financial services company. They are also a membership-based non-profit. Somehow they make it work. I guess even non-Lutherans can use their services, but you have to be a Lutheran member in order to use one of their insurance plans.
  

Despite being loaded down by Xcel Energy, Minneapolis is represented by higher quality and quantity of Fortune 500 mega-corporations. Minneapolis clearly hosts more fertile ground when it comes to big business. We'll leave aside whether Minneapolis should truly take pride in this, but for the purposes here it is a no-brainer.

Minneapolis wins.

Minneapolis: [5] / St. Paul: [3]