A local grocery store on the city’s west side will close at 6 p.m. Oct. 28 on the heels of an announcement Thursday that its parent company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The closure of the Save-A-Lot Food Store at 1107 West Towne Plaza comes after company officials with Buehler Inc. implemented a restructuring plan that involves shuttering some underperforming stores.
“While the decision to pursue restructuring though bankruptcy was extremely difficult, the company believes this step is necessary to preserve value as competition in the industry continues to increase,” according to a statement from the Jasper-based firm.
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The company operates 15 grocery stores in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. Chapter 11 filings allow companies to reorganize finances without the threat of lawsuits from creditors.
The Seymour store, which opened at its current location Jan. 31, 2002, employed 13 workers and offered groceries, produce, home products and other items.
The decision left some customers unhappy.
“We’ve shopped at Save-A-Lots in other towns, and when we moved here, we were glad to know there was a Save-A-Lot here,” Mildred Martin said as she and her husband, Jim, loaded groceries into their van Friday.
“I hate to see it close,” Jim said. “We go to a lot of different ones, but we come here a lot.”
The Martins are originally from Indiana but had moved to Florida. They moved to Seymour in April from Florida.
Patsy Maurer, also of Seymour, said the location was her primary store for groceries.
“This is really sad that it’s going down,” she said as she was carrying groceries to her vehicle. “I always got meat here because they have the best meat in town if you ask me.”
The closure may be the final chapter of a rocky history the grocery chain has had in Seymour.
A Save-A-Lot store was in operation at 312 E. Fourth St. from Oct. 21, 1986, until Feb. 3, 1987, when it was destroyed by a fire. Authorities suspected the fire was likely set and identified a suspect, but no one was ever arrested in the incident.
The store later reopened at 414 W. Second St. in a building that now houses the American Legion Annex. That store closed due to high overhead costs and thefts, according to a Jan. 23, 1992, account in The Tribune.
Sav-A-Lots in Columbus, North Vernon and Scottsburg — some owned by different parent companies — will remain open.
Buehler is the second chain in Seymour to announce a closure in the city this week. Marco’s Pizza announced Sunday it would close, and it closed later that evening. The pizza chain shared a building with Family Video at Tipton and Broadway streets and had operated in Seymour since 2015.
A spokesperson for Marco’s Pizza could not be reached for comment.