A South Carolina town is losing its only grocery store in a matter of days, leaving locals facing a long trip to get fresh food.
The IGA store in Pamplico, Florence County, has been open for decades – but it is due to close on September 27.
The nearest grocery store is 15 miles away in a nearby town. For those with a car, that is a 20 minute drive. For those without they must hitch a lift or walk five hours since there is no public transport.
It makes Pamplico the latest of America’s a so-called food deserts – which occur when a third of people in a rural area are more than 10 miles from a supermarket. Around 19 million now face that reality.
The store’s lease was due to expire soon so the company decided not to renew it, a representative from Alex Lee, IGA’s parent company, told WBTW News13.
The location is older and smaller than others, they added, and there are other IGA stores in the area.
An IGA store in Pamplico, Florence County, which has been running for decades, is due to close on September 27
The spokesperson said that all the 26 employees will be able to get jobs at other IGA stores in the surrounding area.
The company tried to find another retailer to move into the building and operate it as a grocery store, but were unsuccessful in their efforts, they added.
Local Tiffanie Wright said she would miss having a full grocery store in the area, and that she feels for those who cannot drive to a different location further away.
‘This is the only store we have down here with groceries,’ she told WBTW News13.
‘I know we got a Dollar General down the road, but it [doesn’t] have that much stuff that IGA has,’ she said.
‘But I just kind of hate it for, you know, the people who don’t even have cars or anything like that. They’ve got to find a ride to the store.’
The nearest grocery store for Pamplico residents is now 15 miles away in KJ’s Market in Florence.
It comes amid concerns of a rising number of food deserts in the US – where affordable and fresh food is not accessible to communities.
According to the USDA, a food desert occurs when more than 33 percent of the population in urban spaces is further than one mile from a supermarket.
In a rural setting, 33 percent of people must be more than 10 miles from a supermarket.
By this standard, over 18 million people lived in food deserts in 2019, AP News reported.
Shuttered stores mean people have little or no access to fresh, healthy produce, forcing them to buy packaged and highly processed foods.
A so-called ‘retail apocalypse’ is sweeping the US, with different types of stores closing across the country.
Local Tiffanie Wright said she would miss having a full grocery store in the area, and that she feels for those who cannot drive to a different location further away
The nearest grocery store for Pamplico residents is now 15 miles away in KJ’s Market in Florence
The closure comes amid concerns of a rising number of food deserts in the US – where affordable and fresh food is not accessible to communities
Many brick-and-mortar-locations are facing increased running costs and tight margins, while others are plagued with rampant theft.
Even major retailers such as Macy’s are closing stores across the country, and it merged last month that Big Lots is shutting 315 stores across multiple states as its financial woes worsen.
There were almost 2,600 store closures in the first four months of 2024. If that trend continues, almost 8,000 will have been lost by the end of the year.
In recent months, Walmart has closed three more of its underperforming locations. Best Buy closed ten in March.
Dollar stores have been hit hard too, with 99 Cents Only announcing in April it would shutter all 371 of its locations across California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada.
The 1,000 closures of Family Dollar and its sister company Dollar Tree will happen over the next three years.
Express – a mall staple – filed for bankruptcy in April and said it would shut 95 Express outlets alongside all of its UpWest stores.
At the start of May, Rue21 – the teen fashion chain that is a fixture in malls across America – also said it will shut all its 543 US stores after going bust.
Badcock Home Furniture & More said at the end of July it is closing all its 380 stores dotted around the South after it fell into bankruptcy earlier this year.