DAYTON — A neighborhood grocery store unexpectedly closed in Dayton, leaving shoppers concerned about their lack of options.
News Center 7 was there at the Save-a-Lot on Linden Avenue, in the Eastown Shopping Center, when it went out of business Wednesday.
Shoppers said they were shocked and surprised by the shutdown.
“I’ve shopped at Save-a-Lot for probably 20 years that I know of,” Charlene Reimer.
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Reimer, of Dayton, did not know the store was closing until she go to the parking lot. She said the closing was sad.
Reimer told News Center 7′s Mike Campbell that the closure causes a problem for those who live close by or are used to using the nearby bus stop.
“There’s a lot of elderly people that live around here and they walk to the store, and now they have no store to go to because Kroger is so far away,” Reimer said.
Sam Hardin, of Dayton, delivers to stores in the Eastown Shopping Center and said that Save-a-Lot closing sends the wrong message.
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“They feel like the people that are in these neighborhoods don’t deserve quality food and they don’t deserve quality goods. And it you keep doing that, you’re telling people, these people don’t mean anything to you,” Hardin said.
Hardin said he believes too many small or independent grocery stores in East and West Dayton have closed, leaving too many people behind.
In a statement to WHIO, a Save-a-Lot spokesperson said the company takes “the decision to close any Save-a-Lot location very seriously and regularly review our stores on a number of factors.”
“As part of this review, we made the difficult decision to close our Dayton store located on Linden Avenue on October 2. We are grateful to our loyal customers and out team members for their continuous loyalty and support at this location. We look forward to continuing to serve customers at our six other Dayton area stores, which are all owned and operated by independent license partners,” the statement read.