A South Carolina-founded supermarket chain is shuttering another one of its Charleston-area stores.
Southeastern Grocers will close the Bi-Lo at 142 E. St. James Ave. in Goose Creek by Aug. 19, a company official said Friday.
"We realize that the closure of an underperforming store in your community can be challenging," Bi-Lo spokesman Joe Caldwell said. "We do not take these decisions lightly, and only make this tough choice after careful consideration of its impact on our associates and our customers has been made."
The store employs about 90 workers, and many of them can be absorbed at other locations with available positions, Caldwell said.
Store employees were notified Thursday. Liquidation discounts can be expected over the next 30 days.
The 47,500-square-foot store is part of a shopping center built in 1994 on what has become a competitive strip for grocery stores on the six-lane road in the growing Charleston suburb. It's just east of a long-standing Publix supermarket and a Walmart Neighborhood Market store that opened in 2015.
Customers will have about one more month to shop at Bi-Lo on St. James Avenue in Goose Creek before it closes. Warren L. Wise/Staff
The 7.4-acre shopping center site is owned by Beattie Family Partnership LP of Greenville, according to Berkeley County land records. Bi-Lo remodeled the store last year.
The Goose Creek closing will leave the Charleston area with nine Bi-Lo stores between Moncks Corner and Edisto Island. The company closed its last Mount Pleasant store earlier this year. The latest closing will be the eighth Bi-Lo to go dark in the region since 2016.
The nearest Bi-Lo stores to Goose Creek can be found in Hanahan, Moncks Corner and near Sangaree in Berkeley County.
The cart corral at Bi-Lo supermarket on St. James Avenue in Goose Creek will soon be empty. The store is closing in August. Warren L. Wise/Staff
Southeastern Grocers has been trying to recover after emerging from bankruptcy in May 2018. It closed 22 stores across its footprint earlier this year, including nine Bi-Lo stores and a Harveys supermarket in South Carolina.
That round of closings followed 94 last year, including 19 across the Palmetto State and four in the Charleston area, as part of the reorganization plan to trim the company's debt by about $500 million.
Another big-box store will soon go dark in the Charleston region when Bi-Lo shutters its Goose Creek supermarket on St. James Avenue in August. Warren L. Wise/Staff
Jacksonville, Fla.-based Southeastern Grocers operates 551 stores across its footprint, including Bi-Lo, Harveys, Winn-Dixie and Fresco y Mas supermarkets.
About 70 Bi-Lo locations remain in South Carolina along with one Harveys in Ridgeland near Beaufort. The company, which was founded in the Upstate, does not have any Winn-Dixie or Fresco y Mas stores in the state.
Bi-Lo previously filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009 and emerged a year later after a private equity investor bought the chain. It was then combined with Winn-Dixie and Harveys under the Southeastern Grocers umbrella.
