Following the heels of the recent Lucky’s Market closing, Earth Fare will be shutting its doors according to a company announcement Monday, Feb. 3.
The organic, specialty store based out of North Carolina, only recently opened its first location in St. Johns County last Oct. 16 to a large community fanfare.
The chain currently has three locations in the North Florida area: Mandarin, St. Johns and Atlantic Boulevard. All locations are scheduled to be closed immediately, which the company stated will involve significant liquidation price reductions and store fixtures also available for sale.
The company cited financial difficulties as the reason for the announcement and encourages shoppers to take advantage of the liquidation savings prior to the final date. The announcement came as a surprise, as the company recently implemented strategic initiatives aimed at growth and expansion.
"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 store stated in a press release. “As a result, Earth Fare is not in a financial position to continue to operate on a go-forward basis. As such, we have made the difficult, but necessary decision to commence inventory liquidation sales while we continue to engage in a process to find potential suitors for our stores.”
While Lucky’s Market stores have taken a similar course, the locally owned Native Sun has announced it will be reopening its Jacksonville Beach location after being closed earlier this year.
