The Fresh Market, an upscale grocery chain headquartered in North Carolina, announced this week it will close 15 stores nationally, including four in Illinois.
Fresh Market will close stores in Lincolnshire, Glen Ellyn, Peoria and Normal, the company said. The closings represent a significant retrenchment for what was one of the fastest growing grocery chains in the U.S. just a few years ago. Fresh Market, known for high-quality produce, meat and prepared foods, has faced intense competition from other grocers — including traditional retailers and discounters — that have in recent years expanded similar offerings at lower cost.
“What that means is a specialty retailer (like Fresh Market) has to get better at staying on trend,” said Fresh Market CEO Larry Appel in an interview Tuesday. “There has to be a reason to come to a specialty store, right?”
Nationally, the chain is closing stores in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin. The stores are expected to close within two to four weeks.
Under Appel, a longtime grocery executive appointed to the job last year, Fresh Market has doubled down on its premium offerings, such as USDA prime steaks and roasts in the meat case, he said, and new imported pastas from Italy. But the retailer also has been more aggressive with its value promotions, including meal kits for two to four people, assembled in store, that sell for $15, he said.
“You can’t eat cheaper than that at Five Guys,” Appel quipped.
Appel declined to say whether the chain’s same-store sales — a key indicator of retail economic health that compares sales in established stores — are growing, saying only that he’s “very pleased” with the sales trends since taking the helm.
In 2015, Fresh Market announced a financial review of the company after reporting declining sales in stores open at least 16 months. In 2016, the chain announced it was selling itself to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $1.36 billion.
In many ways, the rest of the grocery industry has caught up to Fresh Market’s focus on prepared foods, and natural and organic offerings, said Diana Sheehan, vice president of retail and shopper insights for Kantar Consulting. The chain also lags behind other retailers when it comes to digital marketing, she said.
“The thing that made them special was no longer special,” Sheehan said.
More generally, Sheehan said, there could be additional grocery store closings coming to the Chicago area this year as small retailers struggle to adapt to the changing industry and larger retailers close underperforming stores to increase profits.
Fresh Market also has locations in Crystal Lake, Geneva, Lake Forest and Wilmette, according to the company’s website.
No more store closings are planned, Appel said. Following the closings, there will be 161 Fresh Market stores, mostly in the Midwest and Southeast.
MORE COVERAGE
