Questions have been raised about the future of the Bay Area’s five Delano’s IGA Markets since at least April, when Mission Local reported that employees at their location on South Van Ness Avenue and 23rd Street termed their closure “inevitable.” And now, it looks like some of those questions are being answered — the Chron has been able to confirm that some, but not all, of the grocery stores will be closing very shortly.
While the Appeal’s efforts to reach a Delano’s spokesperson for comment have failed, the Chron did better, speaking with the grocery store chain owner Harley DeLano, Monday. “All the stores aren’t going to close, but some of them are,” he told the paper, before, they say “abruptly hanging up” on the reporter.
It appears that all three of their SF locations are doomed, however — yesterday Richmond SF blog reported that the location at 6333 Geary Boulevard at 27th Avenue would be closing “in the next few weeks” though employees aren’t being told exactly when. “When the food is all sold, we guess!” one worker told the site.
Noe Valley SF blog has heard similar things about the location at 4201 18th Street at Castro Street. An Appeal reader who visited the store last night confirms, saying that the Castro location “is shutting down in 2 days with NO notice,” saying that “they can’t even keep employees in the store after 8 because they can’t pay them” and that “creditors took top-shelf resellables, like the better booze and everything is discounted.” (The Chron, for their part, says the Castro closure will be in two weeks.)
The location at 1245 South Van Ness Avenue at 23rd Street fares no better — according to Eater, the manager on duty Monday at the South Van Ness store said that they, as well as the Castro and Geary Street locations “‘have all lost their leases’ and he’s “‘99.99.99% sure they’re closing. [insert helpless chuckle]'”
The reason for the closures: as you could have guessed, money. Delano told the Chron that they were “still working … with our creditors,” and employees at the Geary store told Richmond SF “that the market chain is in financial distress and would be declaring bankruptcy soon.”
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