Popular grocery chain closes down all locations, no bankruptcy | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

The grocery retail sector continues to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and faces several other challenges, such as increased food and labor costs driven by inflation and rising interest rates on commercial financing.

Some grocery retailers in deep trouble will file for bankruptcy or launch out-of-court restructurings to address their financial distress. In many cases, grocery chains will opt to close or sell underperforming store locations that don’t make economic sense.

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The private owners of popular Southern grocery chain Winn-Dixie said they would close four underperforming Alabama locations in April and May.

A small Austin, Texas, grocery chain Thom’s Market, which was founded in 2007, closed all three of its locations on April 20 without giving a specific reason for shutting down.

A new grocery store tenant reportedly will take over all three locations, purchase Thom’s remaining inventory, and continue to sell many of the same products as the previous tenant.

Giant online retailer Amazon closed two of its Amazon Fresh brick-and-mortar store locations, one in Manassas, Va., on March 16, and another in Thousand Oaks, Calif., on April 27, Chain Store Age reported.

“Certain store locations work better than others, and after an assessment of our offering we’ve decided to close our Amazon Fresh stores in Thousand Oaks, CA and Manassas, VA.,” Amazon said in an email statement.

Daily Table closed all of its store locations.

Image source&colon; Getty Images

Daily Table closes all locations

And now, Boston-area non-profit grocery store chain Daily Table closed its four remaining locations on May 12, suffering the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, food price inflation, and an uncertain and difficult funding environment, the company said on its website.

The company needed immediate funding to continue operating, according to the website, but it was unable to secure the necessary capital.

More closings:

“With heavy hearts, we share that Daily Table will be closing our doors within the next few days” the company said in a May 9 letter on its website. “This was not an easy decision. For the past 10 years, we have had the honor of serving neighborhoods across Greater Boston, working alongside our community to make affordable, nutritious food accessible to all.”

The company has not indicated whether it plans to file for bankruptcy.

Daily Table’s stores, located in Boston, Cambridge, Roxbury and Salem, Mass., sold the chain’s inventory at deep discounts until the company ceased operations. The grocery chain’s Mattapan location closed on Jan. 6.

The grocery chain was founded in 2012 by former Trader Joe’s President Doug Rauch, who created the grocery brand to help address the challenges of hunger and obesity, according to Daily Table’s website.

Provided affordable, high-quality food

The chain’s mission was to provide affordable, high-quality, and nutritious food, regardless of a person’s means. It sought to fill a gap between free food resources and traditional grocery stores, according to its website.

The company partnered with a network of growers, manufacturers, and other suppliers to source high-quality food at low costs and make it available to everyone “at prices designed for even a SNAP budget.”

The grocery chain said that it served over 3 million people since it launched and has returned $16 million in savings to the community, while promoting its healthy food sales.

Daily Table asserted that it created living wage jobs, hiring directly from its neighborhoods and promoting from within its organization, according to its website.

The chain opened its first store in 2015 in Dorchester, its second location in Roxbury in 2018, a third store in Cambridge in 2021, and its fourth and fifth stores in Mattapan and Salem, respectively, in 2023.