An official with Save A Lot grocery on South Boulevard has confirmed the location will be shutting its doors Saturday.
Speculation surrounding the rumored closure has risen in recent weeks with employees often confirming the July 18 closing date for curious customers.
However, the official, who did not wish to be identified, said employees were instructed “not to speak with the newspaper” about the closure.
“People have been coming in and telling us, ‘Well, you’re about to shut down, aren’t you?’ I’m not sure how they even know,” the official said.
Employees were informed July 6 that the store would close — 12 days before the closing date. They have also been instructed not to order any new products, and vendors have not been present for some time.
“We haven’t had any trucks come in and no vendors have come in for about two weeks,” the official said. “You can see for yourself that our shelves are empty.”
On Thursday, many areas of the store were observed as empty or rearranged. The meat department, for example, displayed very few items assorted throughout the chicken, pork and beef sections — regardless of type.
Bread, milk and egg shelves were also bare.
Neimann Foods, headquartered in Quincy, Illinois, purchased the Crawfordsville County Market in November 2015 from Covington Foods Inc. As part of that transaction, Neimann Foods also bought other County Market stores in Attica, Covington, Danville and Tilton, Illinois.
The company owns and operates more than 100 stores under familiar banners such as County Market, ACE Hardware an Pet Supplies Plus throughout the Midwest. Save A Lot moved into the location in May last year before reconfiguring the interior for a fall opening.
Citing these companies, many of which also host locations in Crawfordsville, the official said the reason Save A Lot is shutting its doors “has nothing to do with the town.”
“It has to do with the agreement between Neimann’s and Save A Lot,” the official said.
The store employs seven and, while some were offered jobs at other locations, not every employee is pleased with the decision or how they were informed of the closure.
“We’re pretty salty about it,” another store employee said.
The value grocery offers a limited assortment of products that work well on smaller budgets, which is in stark contrast to Kroger and Walmart, the official said.
“I love shopping here,” the official said. “I don’t know where to shop next.”
With nearly 40,000 residents in 2010, Montgomery County is at risk of becoming a “food desert” with Kroger’s and Walmart’s central locations. These areas are defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture using factors such as access and average income.
An estimated 54 million Americans, or 17 percent of the population, live in low-income or low-access areas. These numbers are configured using average incomes and average distances traveled — if 33 percent or more of the area’s residents live 10 miles or further from a supermarket, supercenter or grocery store, the area is considered a food desert.
The store will not hold any liquidation or closing sales leading up to Saturday’s closure, the official said.
“People will come in, grab a basket, walk around and just put it back saying ‘I guess there’s no (going-out-of-business) deals,’” they said.
Sales with vendors were rarely utilized throughout the store’s year-long stay, a vendor coming to retrieve products said.
“I was told just to start working with (Save A Lot Crawfordsville) on a week-to-week basis,” the vendor said. “The owner didn’t really ever work with me to promote deals or sales.”
The store, located at 451 E. South Blvd., will be open until 9 p.m. Saturday. It will still be owned by Neimann Foods, leaving potential for another store to take its place.
Calls to Neimann Foods and Save A Lot for comment were not returned.
To learn more about food deserts and the USDA’s varying definitions, visit www.ers.usda.gov.
