Get ready to take one last sip ‘n stroll, South Florida. Lucky’s Market is about to close for good.
The chain will close 20 of its 21 stores in Florida by Feb. 12, confirmed Jason Rief, Lucky’s regional store director. Plans to open 14 other stores across the state have been cancelled.
Only the Lucky’s in West Melbourne will remain open, Rief said.
The chain’s South Florida stores are in Coral Springs, Oakland Park and Plantation. Stores started opening in Florida in 2016.
Liquidation sales began Wednesday with inventory marked down 25%, Rief said. The discount will increase as the shutdown date grows closer, he said.
“We’re obviously saddened by the news. It’s a great concept; people loved the concept,” Rief said.
Employees were told in meetings at 7 a.m. Tuesday, he said. The company has about 2,500 employees in Florida and 4,000 nationwide, Rief said. Displaced employees will receive severance pay, he said.
A spokeswoman at the company’s headquarters in Boulder, Colo., did not respond to a request for comment about the closures.
Lucky’s carved a niche by offering mid-priced meat, seafood, juices and prepared foods, plus a wide variety of health products and locally sourced packaged goods. Produce is displayed in farmer’s market-style displays, and samples are doled out generously.
“Organic for the 99 percent” is the chain’s slogan.
Inside-store messaging often winks at laid-back happy hour and cannabis culture, such as calling reusable shopping bags “dime bags” because the store would donate 10 cents to local charities for each reusable bag customers would use.
Memorably, Lucky’s encourages shoppers to “sip ‘n’ stroll” by selling beer for $2 and wine for $3 in glasses that fit into cup holders attached to its shopping carts.
An unknown number of Lucky’s stores outside of Florida will remain open, but stores in other states are reportedly on the shutdown list as well. In Missoula, Mont., the local news website missoulian.com reported that its local Lucky’s would be closing. Lucky’s website lists 10 states with 39 store locations, including seven in Colorado, where the chain was founded.
Progressivegrocer.com was reporting that the chain was planning to close “as many as 32 of its 39 stores.”
Lucky’s primary financial backer — supermarket giant Kroger — announced in early December that it planned to divest its ownership share, throwing the chain’s future into uncertainty. Gary Millerchip, Kroger senior vice president and CFO, said during the company’s Dec. 5 earnings call with investors that the decision followed a “portfolio review.”
The two companies never revealed how much Kroger had invested, saying only that it was a “meaningful” sum. Lucky’s is not publicly traded.
Kroger, which has no stores in Florida, reportedly saw Lucky’s as a way to gain a foothold in the state without provoking a head-to-head battle with market leaders Publix and Walmart. In addition to the three Broward County locations, Lucky’s opened stores in Tallahassee, Naples, North Naples, Sarasota, Gainesville, Neptune Beach, Panama City, Jacksonville, Clermont, Hunter’s Creek, Ormond Beach, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Vineland, West Melbourne and Winter Park.
Lucky’s regional distribution center in Orlando is also closing. It opened last fall.
According to Lucky’s website, 14 new stores were in development across the state, including in Miami, Dania Beach, and Delray Beach, while Boca Raton was to get two stores. Other Florida cities on the 2020 expansion list were Port St. Lucie, Lake Mary, Bonita Springs, Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Port Charlotte, Venice, Brandon and Clearwater. None of those stores will open, Rief said.
Several stores in development had signage out front and the words “Coming Soon.” Job postings for several of those stores were posted on the company’s website when Kroger announced its divestment plan. On Twitter, several jobs were posted for positions in Florida just hours before Tuesday’s announcement.
Asked why the Florida stores could not survive without Kroger, Rief said he could not speak for the store’s corporate officers but surmised “the dollars per square foot [of occupied space] probably wasn’t enough.”
Founded in 2003 by husband and wife Bo and Trish Sharon, both chefs, Lucky’s had 17 stores when it announced the Kroger investment in April 2016.
“Unfortunately, Lucky’s expanded very fast after Kroger became involved,” said Neil Z. Stern, senior partner at Chicago-based retail consulting firm McMillanDoolittle. “They became spread too thin, took some questionable real estate and ultimately they had a huge number of underperforming stores that were not sustainable. Still, this is a huge retrenchment.”
Fans reacted with anger and sadness to news of the closures.
“Screw you @kroger for pulling out of Lucky’s Market in Florida,” Dave Rohe posted on Twitter. “I hope you have a plan for getting my peppered bacon going forward.”
Lea Wilson posted: “Lucky’s Market is closing??? NOOO. This is seriously not okay. We need to get them a new investor or something, maybe a petition.”
On Facebook, Gretchen Schoser said, “This makes me super sad! One of the great things to come to South Florida!”
Rief, who was interviewed at Lucky’s Coral Springs store, said he worked for the company for four years and supervised openings of the three Broward County stores. “I have a pretty deep connection with the team members here and the community as well. I hired a lot of them and seen them grow. This is very sad for us.”
The Oakland Park store in the old Pearl Artist & Craft Supply store on Oakland Park Boulevard was the best performing of the three because of its strong weekday traffic, he said. The Plantation store, which opened in a former Whole Foods location at Plantation Commons, was the worst performer in Broward because of poor visibility from South University Drive and frustrating access to the parking lot.
Lucky’s fans who will miss the chain’s innovative “sip ‘n’ stroll” concept aren’t completely out of luck. Publix’ new GreenWise Market in Boca Raton features a bar with craft beer and wine on tap. But instead of $2 and $3, pours are $5 and $7.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported how many Lucky’s stores were in Florida.
