Final sales as major supermarket with over 500 stores closes location leaving shoppers nervous for ‘food desert’

A FOOD chain has announced the impending closure of its store just a year after opening its location.

Piggly Wiggly, a grocery chain with more than 500 stores, will close a location in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

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The store has not set a closing date.

All grocery items are available at the store for up to 25 percent off as they begin liquidating items from the shelves.

Piggy Wiggly opened the location on August 24, 2022.

The store’s opening was requested by community leaders after the area became a food desert following the closure of the Save-A-Lot grocery store in 2019.

“I think everyone involved is disappointed with this news and this outcome,” City Manager Chris Story told Go Upstate.

“The city and other community partners have been aggressive in developing a strategy to alleviate food deserts, and that is the strategy that led to the Piggly Wiggly.”

Piggly Wiggly did not immediately respond to The US Sun’s request for comment.

EFFECTS ON CLOSURE

The closure will push the area back into the classic definition of a food desert.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as “areas where people have limited access to a variety of healthy, affordable foods.”

The nearest grocery store is an S&A discount store 2.9 miles away.

According to Google Maps, the drive from the Piggly Wiggly to the discount store takes eight minutes and the walk there is 50 minutes.

FINANCING

Local lawmakers and regional health advocates worked together last year to bring the Piggly Wiggly to the community.

According to Go Upstate, the Mary Black Foundation, a local organization founded to “improve the health and well-being of Spartanburg County, South Carolina,” provided the company $600,000 in forgivable loans.

To attract the company, the city government provided another $300,000 loan investment.

Community activists and lawmakers alike said the investment was necessary given the region’s lack of healthy food.

“The Mary Black Foundation is proud of our investment in the grocery store, which has provided access to a community that was previously a food desert,” said Molly Talbot-Metz, president and CEO of the foundation, in a statement to the publication.

“We are disappointed that the store is closing. However, as a philanthropic organization, we often rely heavily on community initiatives that can lead to improved health and well-being.”

Lawmakers expressed a similar opinion.

“It’s like a death in the family,” Spartanburg City Councilwoman Ruth Littlejohn told the publication.

“I’m really sad, especially for our seniors who depended on the store. They have to walk to get their groceries and they don’t have transportation to get around.”

The US Sun reports on further store closures – here you can find an overview of other grocery store closures.

Additionally, this pharmacy chain has closed dozens of stores across the United States.