After less than a year, Needler’s Fresh Market will close its northeast Columbus store next month.
The 35,240 square-foot Needler’s store at 3075 25th St. in Clover Center was one of 15 former Marsh supermarkets acquired for $8 million last spring by parent company Fresh Encounter, Inc., based in Findlay, Ohio.
“We didn’t get the traction in that market that we thought we would,” Fresh Encounter co-owner Julie Anderson said Friday. “We did lower prices and invest in the facilities. But we will start winding things down, and close sometime in mid-April.”
Fresh Encounter also announced a store format change this week in Troy, Ohio, which will result in fewer products and fewer employees, but the Columbus location is the only supermarket the company is closing at this time, she said.
Details, including an exact closing date, are still being worked out for the Columbus store, Anderson said.
About 50 former Marsh employees in Columbus, including store manager Greg Scherschel, were kept when Needler’s took over in June of last year. A ribbon-cutting event at the new Columbus Needler’s was conducted Dec. 1, slightly more than three months ago.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
