Farm Fresh interior
Farm Fresh #6262 (29,293 square feet)
460 Wythe Creek Road, Poquoson Shopping Center, Poquoson, VA
Originally operated November 1980-January 25th, 1998, reopened August 30th, 1998, renovated in summer 2016, closed June 26th, 2018, reopened April 1st, 2022
The Poquoson Farm Fresh has like the most complicated operating history ever: they originally operated for 17 years uninterrupted, but during the company's buyout by Richfood Holdings in 1997 the store (as well as a few other area locations) was given the boot for unknown reasons. They were gone "permanently" by January 1998- then about two weeks later a reopening was announced, go figure! So they spent about another 20 years in business. As the years went on the company was on a slippery slope and ended up pulling the plug in spring 2018, selling off select locations to Kroger, Harris Teeter, and Food Lion and shuttering whatever was left. The Poquoson location wasn't purchased by anyone so was vacated after liquidation. For almost four years the building just sat there untouched with no future plans for the space, but in November it was announced that independent operators Raphael Strumlauf and Mark Green, who already purchased and operate the Richmond Farm Fresh, would be reopening the store. A few months passed by and on Friday the store finally rereopened to much fanfare from the Poquoson community, whose only other choice of grocer was Food Lion. Naturally, this caught my attention and I had to come see the place for myself once again!
After the store's 2018 closure basically everything was left in place as-is, with no fixtures/signage being removed or sold off. This meant that the new owners had to do minimal work to the salesfloor, and it indeed does look almost the exact same as before. In fact, I only noticed three major operational changes: they opted not to keep the pharmacy and converted its' space to an expanded wine section, they added a Blanchard's Coffee Roasting Company stand in a chunk of the old floral space, and two checkout lanes were removed in favor of a self-checkout area. These all seem like reasonable and understandable decisions to me, and aside from that the other departments have been brought back to life as they were prior to 2018 . I wish this store the best since operating independently can be a challenge, but I have total faith in the Poquoson citizens to support this store for years to come!
Farm Fresh interior
Farm Fresh #6262 (29,293 square feet)
460 Wythe Creek Road, Poquoson Shopping Center, Poquoson, VA
Originally operated November 1980-January 25th, 1998, reopened August 30th, 1998, renovated in summer 2016, closed June 26th, 2018, reopened April 1st, 2022
The Poquoson Farm Fresh has like the most complicated operating history ever: they originally operated for 17 years uninterrupted, but during the company's buyout by Richfood Holdings in 1997 the store (as well as a few other area locations) was given the boot for unknown reasons. They were gone "permanently" by January 1998- then about two weeks later a reopening was announced, go figure! So they spent about another 20 years in business. As the years went on the company was on a slippery slope and ended up pulling the plug in spring 2018, selling off select locations to Kroger, Harris Teeter, and Food Lion and shuttering whatever was left. The Poquoson location wasn't purchased by anyone so was vacated after liquidation. For almost four years the building just sat there untouched with no future plans for the space, but in November it was announced that independent operators Raphael Strumlauf and Mark Green, who already purchased and operate the Richmond Farm Fresh, would be reopening the store. A few months passed by and on Friday the store finally rereopened to much fanfare from the Poquoson community, whose only other choice of grocer was Food Lion. Naturally, this caught my attention and I had to come see the place for myself once again!
After the store's 2018 closure basically everything was left in place as-is, with no fixtures/signage being removed or sold off. This meant that the new owners had to do minimal work to the salesfloor, and it indeed does look almost the exact same as before. In fact, I only noticed three major operational changes: they opted not to keep the pharmacy and converted its' space to an expanded wine section, they added a Blanchard's Coffee Roasting Company stand in a chunk of the old floral space, and two checkout lanes were removed in favor of a self-checkout area. These all seem like reasonable and understandable decisions to me, and aside from that the other departments have been brought back to life as they were prior to 2018 . I wish this store the best since operating independently can be a challenge, but I have total faith in the Poquoson citizens to support this store for years to come!