Earth Fare will close all stores
Follows the recent Lucky’s Market announcement of closures.
Earth Fare, a grocery chain that markets itself as a “wellness” brand with “100% clean” food, will close its two Orlando stores and more than 40 others across 10 states, the company said Monday, becoming the latest casualty of an increasingly saturated healthy foods market.
The brand is the second grocery retailer to announce local closures in as many weeks since Lucky’s Market, which emphasizes its organic foods selection, said it would close most of its stores and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
“How many of these specialty gourmet grocery stores can the market sustain?” asked Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Forecasting at the University of Central Florida.
Snaith said the brands are up against a shifting retail environment with online business as well as traditional grocers like Publix also putting more focus on organic and healthy offerings.
But demand remains strong in the health food sector with more customers opting for quinoa over white rice.
Mary Tiffany, who lives near the Earth Fare in SoDo near Orlando Health just south of downtown, said last week that she would turn to EarthFare after she learned her favorite Lucky’s store would close. After finding out Monday that EarthFare would also shut its doors, Tiffany said she would begin driving to Whole Foods, which has stores in Winter Park and the Dr. Phillips neighborhood.
“I’m not going to change what I enjoy having just because the stores are closing,” she said. “It’s not going to change my purchasing choices by any means.”
At the SoDo EarthFare store Monday, Benjamin Mitchell was shopping there for the first time.
“We heard that it has good organic food, especially for our baby,” the Windermere resident said. “So we wanted to get something, a cake for him, for his first birthday.”
Mitchell said he also heard the news about Lucky’s.
“I’m wondering why everything’s closing,” he said.
EarthFare said it is looking to sell its stores, and will also close its corporate office in Asheville, N.C. The company, which started in 1975, has 14 stores in Florida and was on the verge of additional expansion. It opened in Lake Nona in 2018 and in SoDo last year. It planned to open another in DeLand, said city spokesman Chris Graham.
“While many of these initiatives improved the business, continued challenges in the retail industry impeded the company’s progress as well as its ability to refinance its debt,” the company said in a news release. “As a result, Earth Fare is not in a financial position to continue to operate on a go-forward basis.”
Closing sales at Earth Fare stores are expected to run through the end of February.
As for Lucky’s, discount grocer Aldi has reached deals to acquire six of its properties, including in the Colonial Landing shopping center and the location on Regency Village Drive. Publix also has an agreement to buy five Lucky’s leases, including the South Orange Avenue location in Orlando and stores in Clermont and Ormond Beach.
The future of the Lucky’s at 11750 E. Colonial Drive in Orlando as well as the stores in Winter Park and Hunter’s Creek remain unclear, but the grocery store chain said it is continuing to have discussions with other potential buyers.
A group led by Lucky’s founders, Bo and Trish Sharon, has also reached an agreement to acquire the seven stores the chain was leaving open, including at 3170 West New Haven Ave., Melbourne.
Lucky’s said it won’t be opening any more locations, but hasn’t announced any plans for the sites of expected stores in Lake Mary and Apopka.