Katuah Market has announced on its Facebook page that it will be closing shop at the end of March. The locally owned, natural-food grocery store cites a long struggle with “our location, difficult ingress-egress, and relentless corporate competition” as major reasons for its decision.
Originally opened in December 2013, the popular local market was never able to establish a consistent clientele. “Our customers shopped us more like a grab-and-go restaurant with an attached convenience store than as the grocery store,” Katuah says in their Facebook announcement.
Despite efforts to reformat its offerings and trim costs, Katuah Market claims that it is unable to compete in Asheville’s saturated natural-food market any longer. “Asheville has seen two large-format natural-food stores open in the last two years, each owned by multi-billion dollar, multinational corporations, in addition to the five large corporately-owned stores that were already here,” says the market’s official statement.
The closing of Katuah, located at 2 Hendersonville Road, marks another blow to Oakley area residents in need of a grocery store within walking distance, after Bi-Lo closed its Fairview Rd location last October.
Katuah will offer sales on its stock until the planned closing date on Tuesday, March 31.
Read the Facebook statement here:
Katuah Market is closing on March 31st
It is with deep regret that we must announce Katuah Market will be closing at the end of this month. As you may know, Katuah has struggled since the beginning with our location, difficult ingress-egress, and relentless corporate competition, all of which has resulted in disappointing sales. Asheville has seen two large-format natural food stores open in the last two years, each owned by multi-billion dollar, multinational corporations, in addition to the five large corporately-owned stores that were already here, creating the most competitive natural food market in the country for its size. Although we have made significant changes over the past couple of months; trimming staff, reformatting our meat department, adding a Hop Ice Cream parlor, re-merchandising the supplement and grocery departments, etc., none of these changes produced the required increase in sales or significant enough cost reductions that were necessary for survival.
We are proud of the store that we created. The quality of our prepared foods and meats was first rate. Katuah Market was known as a welcoming and pleasant place to shop and eat, and we are told that our customer service was unsurpassed. We developed a positive company culture with happy, dedicated, and loyal employees. Every department was well stocked and merchandised. We carried more local products than any other store in the region, by far, and we helped bring a number of new products to market. Our store is rated with five stars, and 5,755 “likes” on our Facebook page.
Nonetheless, there are (too) many options for organic and local foods in Asheville, and our location and size limited our success. Many people chose not to drive the extra couple of miles it took to get to our store. Others bought most of their groceries at the big corporate chain stores, who offered an endless barrage of discounts, coupons, and advertising, leaving Katuah with only small, occasional, and incidental sales. Our customers shopped us more like a grab & go restaurant with an attached convenience store than as the grocery store that Katuah was designed to be.
Our food service sales were good, especially at lunch, but sales of the other more profitable departments dwindled to the point that our business is no longer sustainable. So, at this point, we have no alternative but to close the doors.Our last day of business will be Tuesday, March 31st. Between now and then, we will continue to offer our excellent quality prepared foods, and we will be offering our grocery and other products on sale, so come on down and get the deals while they last!
We truly appreciate the support that our loyal customers provided, and we hope that you will continue to support the other locally-owned stores in Asheville: the French Broad Food Co-op and West Village Market,
With deep regret,
The Management and Staff at Katuah Market
My wife and I were saddened to learn that Katuah will be closing. Yes, there is now relentless competition for grocery dollars in Asheville. An explosion of sorts, for a city that only has 85,000 year-round residents. It’s quite remarkable that all these chains are fighting for our dollars here. John and his staff will surely be missed, as they are a testament to what local is really all about. Unfortunately, in our busy lives, many people don’t take the time to support local with their dollars over convenience. We did shop at Katuah, Whole Foods Tunnel Road, and French Broad Co-Op to spread out dollars where we thought they should go. We did go out of our way to make sure that we purchased our goat’s milk for our baby at Katuah or I would work there from time to time and meet clients. It was a very clean, well run operation and it will surely be missed. Our hearts go out to John and his staff, many of whom will have to pick up and find new employment. Maybe, because they have the experience of working in the local food and natural foods industry, they’ll be picked up by other markets in the area. I know that John would be an awesome consultant to some of these national chains to help them understand what local and community is really all about.
Thank you for your thoughtful comments about Katuah Market and the local grocery store situation. Stay tuned for a larger story coming soon that will provide more information about the closing including insights from John Swann, Katuah employees and local residents.
Way to take ownership for your failures, stupid name and over priced goods. Really childish way to go out. It’s nice too see selling out comes back around. Sorry for the employees who now have to find new jobs. It won’t be hard in this town(grocery stores).