HUMBOLDT ? Moon?s Hometown Market will close its doors in Humboldt and LaCygne.
Store owners Mike and Lori Moon announced the closings via Facebook Friday evening.
Closeout sales at both locations began Saturday, and are expected to last up to four weeks.
?This announcement may not come as a surprise to you,? the Moons wrote. ?While we have been seriously struggling for many months, the financial decline has been long and slow, going back several years.?
Attempts to obtain financing for the stores have been unsuccessful, they noted. As were attempts to find a new buyer for the Moon?s franchises.
?We have exhausted all available personal resources to save our company, but the losses are far greater than the revenues,? they wrote. ?Inventory is low, sales are flat, and customers have found other food sources. Without a financial resource, the stores cannot survive. It is time to shut things down.?
The Moons acknowledged the evolving marketplace.
Twenty years ago, retail giants such as Walmart cut into profits. Then came other discount chains, such as Dollar General.
The advent of technology ? ordering groceries online ? is the next threat to traditional merchants, they predicted.
The stores? employees were notified Friday morning. All have been given letters of recommendation to help them obtain future employment.
Moon?s Hometown Market will sell off its remaining store inventory in Humboldt as part of a four-week closeout sale.
MOON?S IN Humboldt gained a reprieve when Monarch Cement purchased the building and land on which the store is situated, allowing the grocery amenable terms.
However, Mike Moon noted at the time the maneuver did not guarantee long-term solvency, alluding to the openings of other stores in neighboring communities.
?Each time one of these opened up, our sales dropped a little bit,? he said.
The Moons got their start in the grocery business in 1992, when Mike Moon bought out the Willard?s IGA partnership in Osawatomie, changing the store?s name to Moon?s Hometown Market. They slowly expanded, acquiring the old Humboldt IGA from Wally Hart in 2006 and another in LaCygne in 2013.
The Moons sold the Osawatomie store in 2016.
