Earth Fare going out of business

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Groceteria
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Earth Fare going out of business

Post by Groceteria »

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Re: Earth Fare going out of business

Post by cw06 »

There's definitely a lesson to be learned on expanding too rapidly too far out of your core area. It seems like these small organic grocery chains only do well by staying in their core metro or region.

It's too bad Earth Fare is closing down. They were the first organic grocer I shopped at, back when they were still just a regional Western NC thing.
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Re: Earth Fare going out of business

Post by pseudo3d »

I had the chance to visit an Earth Fare last October when I was on vacation in Knoxville, located in an old BI-LO. However, it didn't fill up the whole space (I was excited because there appeared to be a garden center adjacent to the store but it turned out it was an Ace Hardware that had also taken up residence). It didn't seem to be that memorable, really (one of the most memorable parts was a large carpet/floor fixture that listed their "unacceptable ingredients") and I don't remember any of the perishable departments.
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Re: Earth Fare going out of business

Post by storewanderer »

At some point a few years ago I went to an Earth Fare. I forget where but it was in one of those "mixed use" type developments in a suburb that has a bunch of houses, no formal parking lot (had a parking garage), but you could parallel park on the sidewalk in front of the store. Also the store was in the middle of the mixed use development and had zero visibility from the main roads.

The store itself was very unremarkable. I don't even remember if I bought anything. The prices were absolutely terrible and the quality of items being sold did not appear to match up to what they were charging. Think Sprouts quality at Whole Foods prices. The perishable departments were unremarkable and poorly laid out (sort of squeezed in). The store had very few customers and I was surprised given what I had heard about the chain.

Now that it is going out of business I am not very surprised.

I am surprised it got to 50 stores.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Sprouts and Fresh Thyme. Sprouts may do well but it has serious issues.
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Re: Earth Fare going out of business

Post by buckguy »

I looked at their locations and they seem pretty random--third tier markets like Fort Wayne, a modestly well-off suburb here, a more affluent one there. It seemed like they really had no coherent strategy and their base area in NC is nothing like a lot of the places they went.

The Fresh Market seems a bit similar--very uneven stores and rather expensive for what they are, with an odd collection of locations, but at least they're still in business.
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Re: Earth Fare going out of business

Post by Groceteria »

Despite what the original article said, there apparently was a bankruptcy filing;

https://www.citizen-times.com/story/new ... 671360002/
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Re: Earth Fare going out of business

Post by Knight »

cw06 wrote: February 3rd, 2020, 2:44 pm There's definitely a lesson to be learned on expanding too rapidly too far out of your core area. It seems like these small organic grocery chains only do well by staying in their core metro or region.

It's too bad Earth Fare is closing down. They were the first organic grocer I shopped at, back when they were still just a regional Western NC thing.
Expanding quickly and into distant areas does not work well indeed. The Fresh Market, Lucky's Markets, and Earth Fare are case studies for specialty organic/gourmet grocers on what not to do.
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