DUFFIELD – Store workers were busy clearing merchandise from shelves at the Duffield Food Country USA Wednesday as signs throughout the store said, “Thank You For Your business. We Are Now Closing.”
Food Country’s CEO said Wednesday the impending shutdown is part of a restructuring that could affect up to three stores across the company’s Tennessee and Virginia footprint.
Some aisles’ shelves, deli hot food and bakery cases were emptied, and clearance signs were posted on some meat department items.
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“It’s been a good store for us for years,” said CEO Don Henderson on Wednesday, “but now it’s just not there. It’s been underperforming and it was time for us to make a change because we were actually losing money.”
Henderson said the Duffield store’s situation reflected closings and restructurings facing other supermarket and retail chains in the region.
“Just like Kroger’s in Abingdon, Starbucks across the country, we made a business decision,” Henderson said. “The people in the community were very sorry, but we were funding the store and we didn’t feel it was a good business decision to keep doing that.”
Increasing utility costs and minimum wage hikes and variable costs contributed to the restructuring, he added
The Duffield store opened approximately three decades ago and has been a retail anchor for the community. The Duffield site and the Subway franchise in that building are both owned by Food Country USA.
“The Subway has been a very good Subway for us and it will remain open,” said Henderson. “If we rent the building or sell the building, we hope to do it under the terms that our Subway stays in.”
Henderson said a closing date for the Duffield store will be announced two days before closing work is done.
“Food Country has been a staple for the Duffield community for years,” Scott County Economic Development Authority Executive Director John Kilgore said Wednesday, “and we are devasted that a private business has made the decision to close.”
The Duffield store’s closing will leave local residents with an approximately 25 minute drive to access a regional or national chain supermarket, with Food Lion in Gate City or Food City in Big Stone Gap.
Duffield area residents have access to a Dollar General Store and a Family Dollar store with some packaged food items and Henry’s Produce for fresh vegetables and fruits.
Henderson said seven other Food Country stores were remaining open as of Wednesday:
- Mountain City, Tennessee
- Abingdon, Virginia
- Saltville, Virginia
- Fort Chiswell, Virginia
- Stuart, Virginia
- Rural Retreat, Virginia
- New Castle, Virginia.
Food Country also opened a Midway IGA store in Knoxville
Food Country closed a store in Mosheim, Tennessee in October, and Henderson said that and Duffield are part of a restructuring in which the company has been looking at three stores.
“We’ve got some stores on the drawing board in Tennessee that I’m not at liberty to say right now.” Henderson said. “We hope to get to 11 or 12 storers by the spring of 2026, but that’s a fluid situation too. We’ll handle them one at a time.”
“This is a loss for everybody and it hurts, everybody hurts,” Henderson said. “We’re not jumping up and down high-fiving each other. I feel like all the people in Duffield are supporting us, I really do. Hopefully something will come in there that will be good for Duffield.”