Sam Flax under negotiation for space.
UPDATE (June 9, 2011): Sam Flax art supply to relocate after 20 years
Kroger is closing a 36,000-square-foot Brookwood store.
The grocery store chain will close their store at 1745 Peachtree St. on July 8.
The two level grocery store had “experienced declining sales and negative profit over an extended period of time, and its closing will help Kroger operate more efficiently,” the company said in a statement.
The store’s closing was a decision based on an effort to make “Kroger more competitive in the Atlanta market,” the company said.
With 130 stores in Metro Atlanta, Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. said their will be plenty of other locations for store employees to be considered for reassignment.
Sam Flax has a tentative agreement with Kroger to fill the space. Sam Flax, an art supply store, has a location on Northside Drive, less than two miles away.
Rumors abound suggest Sam Flax would not open a second store, rather would move relocate to the now shuttered Brookwood Place Kroger.
Brookwood Place, owned by Atlanta-based Selig Enterprises Inc., has seen several anchor tenants close — Borders Books & Music closed in February which is slated to be replaced by Aveda Institute.
Kroger
1735 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
22 Responses
Isn’t this a photo of the Toco Hill location?
hi carl– it’s not a specific kroger, just a picture of kroger from their website.
–cjs
Kroger seems to have a hard time with urban stores. Didn’t one used to also be downtown near Underground? Here’s an interesting article about Kroger’s inability to maintain nice urban stores in their own hometown.
http://www.urbancincy.com/2011/06/cincinnatis-urban-kroger-stores-face-a-unique-design-opportunity/
Publix seems to have the leg up on urban stores. The few times I did go in this location, it just seemed dirty. Plus, it always irked me that there was no entrance from Peachtree. Grocery stores can have two entrances, as proved by the Plaza Midtown Publix. Perhaps Sam Flax will present a better face to our signature street.
I live near this Kroger and it never served our neighborhood. Customer service was notoriously bad. I occasionally shopped there and I have only seen one other neighbor in the store. Most neighbors drive past this store to go to the one at Ansley, Fresh Market or Publix. The to-go counter sold mostly fried chicken and collards which is not what most folks in this neighborhood would want to eat. Urban supermarkets need to be more like a small gourmet store rather than a small convenience store in order to attract the intown market. This ain’t the ‘burbs.
Kroger should have opened a burger joint in the deli, or perhaps offered a low quality burrito.
Funny, the one near underground was smaller than a convenience store. I think it had a tough time offering the “gourmet” services, what with the police arresting bums, crooks and druggies inside.
The customer service here was next to none heinous. I would literally wait at the customer service desk (to buy lotto) sometimes up to 20 minutes. The other employees would just look at me and not offer to go find the person who was supposed to be there. I live in the condos behind this store, and would go there daily, and the service was horrid more than it wasn’t. Good riddance
Sam Flax is very excited for the opportunity to move to Peachtree Street at Brookwood Place. We are committed to being better able to serve the the public in and we have many creative ideas on how to bring some real excitement to our new location. We are very thankful to the entire Kroger organization for working with us on this project. We also would like to thank the city and people of Atlanta for their patronage and loyalty during our 20 years on Northside Drive and how that our customers and new ones will have a better shopping experience at 1745 Peachtree St. Northeast, the soon to be home of Sam Flax Atlanta!
Lionel Flax
General Manager, Sam Flax Atlanta
Old South is making the same mistake Kroger is making. Just because Brookwood and Underground are “Intown” doesn’t mean they are the same market. Intown markets have a finer grain than subruban markets.
Is Tuk Tuk still struggling here?
Mr. Flax: Will your new store utilize a Peachtree entrance as well?
What surprises me about Kroger’s poor performance in Atlanta proper is how well it does in Savannah. Anyone been to the urban Savannah store? That place is attractive, small, convenient, friendly and always busy. Up here, you think Kroger and you think suburbs.
It would be nice to have the Peachtree entrance lead into the book section of Sam Flax with a small coffee/pastry counter. It would be like a small art bookstore with seating on the sidewalk. The store could charge for after-hours art & wine parties for patrons to try their hand at painting, clay, photography or other arts. Kids’ art parties on weekends would also attract neighbors.
I second SteveK’s idea!!
It doesn’t sound to me like Kroger has made any mistake. Hopefully the new people will do well. Steve, there have been attempts to offer higher services around Peachtree, and well, they are no longer around. Soon, I too will be among them.
What the hell is “negative profit”?
I was always taught that’s what we called a “loss”.
Sorry to hear about your plight Old South and I wish you well! If I had to choose one word to describe the intown market, it would be “finicky”. They say they want local and authentic but then a burger joint opens and becomes all the rage. They want high-end but then the high-end store is considered pretentious. It’s a rare local individual who can strike the right balance because people are more than willing to head over to Target, even though they HATE the big box stores.
Service is always terrible at this store. Maybe it would have survived if the workers learned how to be nice to customers. I work in the area and walking distance away. I will miss the convenience.
An Update…Kroger has posted the stoee is closing JULY 1st! 50% off on the frozen goods starts June 26th. Was just there not 30 minutes ago.
Yes the service stunk, the fresh food was about a day away from being spoiled, but it was incredibly cheap and convenient. Now I get to go to the publix down the street and pay 1.39 for the extact product I paid .99 cents for.
Can’t see an art supply store lasting more than 6 months in that location. Many businesses have already gone out there and tuktuk one of the new ones is on it’s way out already. I wouldn’t want to own that plaza in a million years.
This store quite simply did itself in by showing that every time it was presented with two choices it picked the wrong one. It seems the thought process was something like this: Smaller neighborhood focused store in a development designed to be pedestrian friendly so… let’s orient the store to where it faces the parking lot back by the loading dock effectively turning our backs on the 4 apartment complexes, 5 condo communities and multi block residential neighborhood across the street – brilliant! Even better idea – let’s close the one door we have facing Peachtree and on top of that block out all the windows on that side so that the inside of the store feels like cave – great idea what more welcoming of a place to shop than something that reminds people of a dank basement! Hmm… for some reason this place isn’t making money – well then obviously the thing to do is cut back hours to where it opens an hour later and closes an hour earlier than the nearest Publix – what a stroke of genius. Honestly as poorly as this place was handled from start to finish it’s a wonder it lasted this long.