DENVER — Natural Grocers announced on Wednesday it plans to close one of its stores at the corner of Colfax and Washington due to retail theft and safety issues impacting the store's performance, the company said in a release.
"We have been actively working to address the theft and safety issues impacting our store at Colfax and Washington for some time," said Kemper Isely, co-president of Natural Grocers. "Despite our investment in security and loss prevention strategies over the years, these factors have continued to challenge our ability to operate our store safely and sustainably, and we have made the difficult decision to close our doors at this location."
The store is set to begin a closing sale on Friday with discounts of 10% off everything. The store will close on Oct. 31.
The news shocked store customer Brian Corbin who said he lives within walking distance and saw the parking lot get paved over the weekend.
"If this store closes, that’d be pretty hard," Corbin said. "Especially because I like to eat a lot of things that are more organic and this store is great for that. They have a lot of organic produce a lot of organic food."
Corbin said he's never seen people stealing from the store like Natural Grocers claims. He said he realizes he may not see the theft, but wondered if closing the store is the right answer for everyone.
"I understand that they’re probably losing money, if that was true, but that’s still kind of hard," Corbin said. "You don’t want to ruin it for the rest of the community who does use it. We’re all really needing it."
The potential impact isn't lost on Denver District 10 city councilman Chris Hinds.
"It's such a shame, because, you know, so many people in Cap Hill and in the surrounding neighborhoods don't own cars at all," Hinds said. "About a third of households in these densest neighborhoods in the center city don't own cars at all. And so having access to fresh and healthy food is very important for everyone, but particularly people who don't have cars. So having Natural Grocers exit is certainly a sad day."
Hinds said he was made aware of issues at the store recently. He said if he knew earlier, it's possible a closure could have been avoided.
"Certainly would have tried as best I could to help or certainly get the right connections, should natural grocers have reached out," Hinds said.
Hinds noted the closure comes at a time when Colfax will be seeing a new surge of patrons with the bus rapid transit line.
"I see that as a huge opportunity for us to keep Colfax weird like, you know, it has been," Hinds said. "It has a great history and a great story, but also to provide a bunch of activation, particularly for pedestrians, so that people could go to Natural Grocers and get their groceries and get home, either on foot or by bike or by bus and having all those additional people taking the BRT, I think would help with a lot of eyes on the street and a lot of pedestrian activation."
Corbin said he hopes the future of his go-to store will change before the end of the month.
"Having a store that you can walk to easily, just to grab stuff and especially healthy stuff, it’s one of those things where I’m hoping they keep it 'cause it’s been beneficial to this area," Corbin said.
After the Colfax and Washington location closes on Halloween, Natural Grocers says customers can shop at these nearby locations: