ST. LOUIS — On Monday, the local grocery chain Fields Foods temporarily closed another store in the St. Louis area. It's the third location that closed in less than a month.
The Dogtown store is the latest one to put its operations on pause after its grand opening in May 2023.
Fields Foods made similar announcements in July for a store in Pagedale and another near Forest Park.
- On July 18, the Pagedale location closed. The store opened in March 2023.
- On July 31, the EXPO location near Forest Park closed. Its grand opening was on Feb. 2023.
- On August 14, the Dogtown location closed. Its grand opening was in May 2022.
In total, there were five stores located in the St. Louis region. Now, there are only two stores currently open in Layette Square and Downtown St. Louis. As of Monday morning, some of the shelves are bare.
Store owner, Chris Goodson, spoke to 5 On Your Side's partners at the St. Louis Business Journal last week.
He acknowledged employees had been laid off and stores had closed, amid lawsuits over back rent and taxes. Goodson said he's trying to sell Fields Foods to an employee ownership group.
On Monday morning, some Dogtown residents were stopped by a sign on the door, which read:
"The Fields Foods Dogtown grocery store will temporarily pause on Monday August 14th. Our store will reopen in a few short weeks after transition to new ownership and re-merchandising. We apologize for the pause and thank our customers for their continued patience and loyalty as we complete this process. We look forward to renewed partnerships with our employees and customers."
Tony Fischetti has lived in Dogtown since 1983 and he was excited for the opening of Fields Foods.
"Especially when it’s cold and you don’t want to go to the car, it’s nice and convenient," he said.
The next grocery store is a six-minute drive and a 28-minute walk. That's why Fischetti likes to walk to the nearby Fields Foods. However, Fischetti came up to the store Monday morning and left empty-handed. He said empty shelves at the store should have been a sign.
"I knew something was up," Fischetti added.
Chelsie Hellige, who has lived in the neighborhood for nine years, said she noticed the recent bareness at the store.
"They, overtime, would stop stocking things. It was an ongoing problem and getting worse and worse. For months they had empty shelves," Hellige said. "It’s supposed to be a grocery store in a food desert but the grocery store is a food desert."
From the beginning, Hellige said she hoped for the store's success.
"It was several years ago, this was an empty parking lot and I joined the Dogtown Neighborhood Association, so we could vote for the developers to build this building. We voted for it and the big reason we did was because we wanted a grocery store here," she said.
Now, Hellige said she is eager to see what's next.
"I hope this can get saved and turned into a functioning grocery store for the neighborhood and beyond that would be really great. Every neighborhood deserves that," she said.
5 On Your Side reached out to Field Foods for comment. As of Monday evening, we did not receive a response.