Ukrop's to close one Williamsburg store

By Rex Bowman

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Ukrop's Super Markets Inc. is closing one of its two Williamsburg-area stores next month, saying the housing market slowdown has stymied anticipated residential growth along Interstate 64 and failed to deliver customers.

The Lightfoot store at 6610 Mooretown Road in the Williamsburg Marketcenter will close Feb. 1, though the company says it could re-open if economic conditions improve. The store opened in October 2006.

The announcement comes weeks after Ukrop's President Robert S. Ukrop acknowledged that the chain's Roanoke store is underperforming. That store, which opened last year, has not caught on with Roanoke shoppers.

The Ivy Market shopping center, where it is located, has signed only one other tenant, according to Ukrop.

The grocery has tried to drum up more business by sending $25 in coupons to Roanoke-area residents.

Ukrop's spokeswoman Susan Rowe said yesterday that there has been no discussion about closing the Roanoke store.

The closure of the Williamsburg store will leave Ukrop's with 28 outlets statewide, most of them in the Richmond area.

In a letter to its Williamsburg shoppers dated yesterday, Ukrop said economic conditions make closing the Lightfoot store prudent.

"We opened the Lightfoot store in anticipation of the significant growth expected along the I-64 corridor," Ukrop wrote.

"However, the current housing slowdown, impacting the Williamsburg area as it has the rest of the country, suggests that development will be sluggish, at least for the foreseeable future.

"Given these circumstances, it simply does not make good business sense to keep two stores open in such close proximity; however, should the situation change, we do have the option of reopening."

The grocer is encouraging customers to shop at its other Williamsburg store at 4660 Monticello Ave., 7 miles from the Lightfoot store.

Prescriptions for customers of the Lightfoot store pharmacy will be transferred to the pharmacy in the Monticello store Jan. 31, and the First Market Bank branch in the closing store will stay open until March 31.