ORLANDO, Fla. — The downtown Orlando Earth Fare store, one of a chain of 50 organic and natural grocery stores that shuttered early last year, has reopened with new ownership.
What You Need To Know
- Downtown Orlando organic and natural grocer Earth Fare reopens
- Location was 1 of 50 stores that shut down nationwide early last year
- A new investor bought Earth Fare and has reopened about 20 of them
The 24,000-square-foot store, which is on the ground floor of the Novel Lucerne mixed-use building on Orange Avenue and Gore Street, opened Saturday.
The Earth Fare location closed and the chain declared bankruptcy in February 2020. That was just weeks after natural grocery competitor Lucky's Market shut down a few blocks south on Orange and Michigan Street.
That left Publix, Walmart Neighborhood Market, and Target as the remaining grocery stores in the downtown Orlando area.
But in March, a business leader in Asheville, N.C., where Earth Fare is based, bought the company, according to an Earth Fare news release. With support from the previous owners and operators, it's reopening 20 locations in eight states on the East Coast with plans to expand. According to its website, the other Florida locations that have reopened are in Seminole in the Tampa Bay area and in Ocala.