ARCANUM — An outpouring of support, memories, and well wishes for the future followed a social media post of pending closure for Sutton’s Foods on Friday.
Darke County Media reached out to the locally owned and operated grocery store Friday evening. Kirby Sutton, owner, briefly offered a week to remain open before stating no further comment.
A posting on Facebook reads as follows:
It is with heavy hearts that we are announcing the closing process for Sutton’s. We have been blessed to serve the Arcanum community for 86 years! No official closing date has been announced.
On Saturday evening, Sutton’s announced its hours of business next week. The store will be closed Sunday, March 1. They will be open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday. Saturday, March 7 hours are yet to be determined. All hours are subject to change without notice. All inventory is sold as is.
As previously reported, the store had been going through a hard time following the closure of its Union City store in July 2019.
While Josh Urlage, store president, noted the business was blessed to serve the Union City community, since then, the Arcanum location had been caught in a downward spiral.
In November, several individuals took the lead to rally the community to help save Sutton’s Foods, as a show of support to the Sutton family with a goal to “buy it all and empty the shelves.”
Two weeks following the rally, Urlage stated the show of support “was incredibly overwhelming.”
Business tripled thanks to the rally in comparison to a typical Saturday with not only employees volunteering their time but also the customers. While they shopped, some would stop to help stock shelves. Purchases were made not only for personal use but donated back to the store to help supply area food pantries.
Along with Arcanum residents, individuals in surrounding communities such as Greenville, and even from Piqua and Troy, shopped to show their support.
Sutton’s Foods has been a part of the community for several generations, an asset to many including the Castine Food Bank. The store set aside space at the front for volunteers to leave paper bags laden with food for those in need to make an easy pickup.
The store was also the current location for a silent auction of Roger Snell’s painting, A New Day in Arcanum, an original acrylic of Arcanum’s town hall and water tower.
Snell, who resides in Frankfurt, Ky., and works fulltime for the Kentucky Proud program, understood the struggle.
“I know the battle these retailers have, how important to have a place like Sutton’s,” Snell had said, noting Sutton’s Foods as equally important as that of the village hall. He noted all the little independents, the mom and pop establishments, are struggling to hang in there.
Sutton’s Foods was founded in 1934 by Roy and Nola Sutton.
