Ukrop’s to Roanoke shoppers: Help us
Rex Bowman / Times-Dispatch
The Ukrop’s store in Roanoke has been hurt by slow sales, could be closed if business doesn’t improve. One problem is the shopping center, where it is located, is not fully developed.
Published: December 6, 2008
Ukrop's Super Markets Inc. is having a tough time attracting customers to its Roanoke store because of a lack of support from the shopping center it inhabits, the company president said yesterday.
The Richmond-based chain opened the 58,700-square-foot grocery store in 2007 at the Ivy Market shopping center on Franklin Road.
But Ivy Market has not signed tenants and, consequently, the grocery chain has not been able to get a foothold in the market, Robert S. Ukrop said. The only other tenant in the center is a Walgreen's store.
"What we're trying to do is change people's habits," Ukrop said. That's difficult to do, he said, because there are no other tenants in the center to draw customers in to try out the grocery store.
In new markets, good neighbors bring customers to your stores, he said. The Roanoke store is among four Ukrop's outside the Richmond area -- two in Williamsburg and one in Fredericksburg.
In a letter sent to about 6,700 Roanoke-area customers last week, Ukrop wrote that the a lack of development at Ivy Market was disappointing.
"We believe in the viability of this area, but without strong retail co-tenants to draw more traffic to the center, it is difficult to build [a] business as a stand-alone operator," he said in the letter.
The letter included $25 in coupons broken down in $5 amounts over five weeks.
Brian Brown, economic development director for the city, said Roanoke has promised the developers $9 million in tax incentives over 15 years for the Ukrop's and the Walgreens.
A call to Ivy Market's management company was not returned.
Roanoke Assistant City Manager Brian Townsend said the property where Ivy Market now sits was an undeveloped "vacant floodway" for years, so the city hopes the project will succeed.
Failure of the project, he said, "would be a blow to the city from the [standpoint] of trying to see something happen on a piece of land that was vacant. It would be a blow to our efforts to continue to position and grow the city as the retail center of the region."
Despite the problems, Ukrop said he is committed to the area and the letter was a way to drive business to the store.
"We are trying to explain to people that we need their help," he said.
Contact Rex Bowman at (540) 344-3612 or
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Reader Reactions
ukrops picked a bad time to open a store in a market already saturated with food lions, krogers and wal-mart
supercenters, unlike the greater richmond area, where the above mentioned competitors came in after ukrops had established dominance here.
hard to say whether the lack of sunday hours and sin sales (lottery, tobacco,
beer, tablioids, etc) is a factor.
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