- A preferred regional grocery chain is closing unexpectedly.
- If a few of the chain’s areas should not changed, it would create a meals desert.
- The chain’s house owners hope to promote the shops.
When a grocery retailer closes in a market that has a number of supermarkets, it is a minor annoyance. Folks would possibly lose entry to their favourite chain, however they’ll nonetheless have locations to buy.
When the one grocery retailer in a market closes, that may be a catastrophe for residents.
That truly occurred within the New Hampshire city the place my household has a trip dwelling. The native Market Basket closed, making boutique (and really costly) shops the one grocery choices in a 20-30 minute radius.
A brand new Cease & Store ultimately moved in, however for round two years, residents had no easy accessibility to supply or full-line grocery-store costs.
That is one thing the Richmond Occasions Dispatch wrote about in a 2019 editorial.
An estimated 1 million Virginians dwell in so-called meals deserts — areas with no grocery shops inside one mile in city areas and inside 10 miles in rural communities. Nationally, that determine is estimated at a dangerously excessive 37 million, in accordance with the U.S. Division of Agriculture.
That’s about 11 % of the nation’s inhabitants, a distressing determine 20 years into the twenty first century. Individuals who dwell in communities the place it’s laborious to search out inexpensive, recent meals face greater dangers for weight problems, diabetes, and coronary heart illness.
Richmond Occasions Dispatch
This is not an issue that has been solved, and it is about to worsen, as one regional grocery chain has abruptly determined to shut its doorways.
Hitchcock’s is closing all its shops
Some grocery chains had been constructed round serving markets the place greater gamers like Kroger, Albertson’s, and Publix didn’t need to go. That is how Hitchcock’s grew into a serious regional participant.
“Hitchcock’s recognized the need for rural towns in Central Florida to have clean, well-stocked, quality products and service driven food stores and opened their first store in 1945. The Hitchcock’s company continued to grow over the years to locations located across the central part of Florida. Today, we are all about offering only the highest quality foods at competitive prices, clean stores and with friendly well trained and knowledgeable employees,” the corporate shared on its web site.
Now, with out warning, the chain has determined to shut all of its areas.
“You may think it’s business as usual at the Hitchcock’s Market in Keystone Heights, but that’s until you get to the door and see this sign thanking customers for more than 80 wonderful years,” Florida’s WCJB reported.
The shutdown shouldn’t be restricted to that location.
The house owners of Hitchcock’s Markets are planning to shut all of their areas.
WCJB
Many Hitchcock’s shops are holding 30% off gross sales and plan to shut on the finish of October. Some areas will reopen a few month later beneath the Winn-Dixie model.
Employees haven’t realized whether or not they are going to be supplied jobs by Winn-Dixie.
Associated: 71-year-old ice cream and burger chain closing last location
The house owners haven’t given a motive for the closure, nor have they mentioned which areas will open beneath Winn-Dixie or different manufacturers.
They plan to promote each location, however these plans haven’t been finalized.
Some cities and cities do not need grocery chains promoting recent produce.
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Hitchcock’s Markets: timeline
- 1945: Bob Hitchcock and his father opened the primary Hitchcock’s Market in Alachua, Florida, aiming to supply high quality groceries to rural communities.
- 1977: The unique retailer was changed with a contemporary grocery store constructing on the nook of Primary and US 301 in Alachua.
- 1979: Bob Hitchcock handed management of the enterprise to his son, Alan Hitchcock, who expanded the chain by opening further shops in Archer, Jasper, Trenton, Williston, and Newberry.
- 2001: Hitchcock’s acquired a number of shops from the defunct Miller’s Grocery store chain, additional increasing its presence.
- 2008: Alan Hitchcock offered the chain to Haug Enterprises, an affiliate of SuperValu.
- 2013: A brand new 26,000 square-foot full-service grocery retailer, together with a pharmacy, was inbuilt rural Dixie County, Florida, to switch a run-down 30-year-old constructing.
- 2019: The Alvarez household acquired Hitchcock’s Markets from Haug Enterprises.
- 2020: Hitchcock’s opened a brand new retailer in St. Petersburg, Florida, in a former Fortunate’s Market location.
- 2022: The St. Petersburg retailer closed after lower than two years of operation.
- October 2025: The Alvarez household introduced plans to promote all 10 Hitchcock’s Markets areas throughout North Central Florida to varied grocery chains, with some transactions already finalized.
Supply: albertsonsfloridablog.blogspot.com
Meals deserts stay a major downside
Hitchcock’s serves markets which have restricted different choices for customers. Which means if patrons cannot be discovered, it might put extra folks right into a meals desert.
“We have food deserts in our cities. We know that the distance you live from a supplier of fresh produce is one of the best predictors of your health. And in the inner city, people don’t have grocery stores. So we have to figure out a way of getting supermarkets and farmers markets into the inner cities,” shared Michael Pollan, the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism on the UC Berkeley Graduate College of Journalism, in accordance with Quote.org.
It is a downside even former First Woman Michelle Obama was not in a position to clear up.
“Our goal is ambitious. It’s to eliminate food deserts in America completely in seven years,” she shared with PBS again in 2010.
Again then, 23.5 million Individuals lived in areas with out supermarkets or different locations the place they’ll entry recent, nutritious meals. To vary the state of affairs in these areas — often called “food deserts,” Obama known as for motion.
“That is taking place all throughout the nation. We’re setting folks up for failure if we don’t repair this,” she added.
