Dive Brief:

• Schnuck Markets announced Friday it is abandoning Eatwell Market, a banner focused on natural and organic foods with two stores in Missouri.
• The Midwestern grocery chain said it is converting the Eatwell store in Columbia to its traditional format and closing the location in Chesterfield on June 2. Schnucks debuted the format with the Columbia store in 2020.
• Schnucks decided to close the locations “after significant analysis and evaluation of what we could do to make each store more successful during current economic conditions,” Chairman and CEO Todd Schnuck said in a statement.

Dive Insight:

Schnucks’ decision to abandon the Eatwell format represents a sudden course change for the Midwestern grocery chain, which opened the banner’s second location just last year.

When it opened in March 2023, Schnuck described that location, which occupies 30,200 square feet and marked the concept’s debut in Schnucks’ home market of the St. Louis area, as a way to offer “shoppers a store where they can stay focused on health and wellness while also discovering new, local items.”

Schnucks opened the first Eatwell location in June 2020 on a 41,700-square-foot site in Columbia that formerly housed a Lucky’s Market store. Schnucks noted at the time that the city was an optimal place to launch the format because the grocer has operated there for five decades, resulting in a well-established shopper base.

“Their loyalty over these last five decades makes this a perfect place for Schnucks to try something new with our EatWell store,”  Schnuck said in a statement when the company announced the new format.

The Eatwell store in Columbia includes an 11,000-square-foot convenience-oriented section stocked with traditional grocery items.

The grocer said Friday that it ultimately decided to walk away from the Eatwell format despite its desire to innovate. “As a company, we embrace trying new things and learning from our experiences to improve future store designs, operations, merchandising and marketing,” Schnuck said.

Aside from its signature banner, which encompasses most of its stores, Schnucks also operates Schnucks Fresh, a pair of small-format stores focused on products in departments like produce, seafood, deli, bakery and meat.

Schnucks said it is preserving all jobs at the closing Eatwell locations. Associates who work in the Columbia location will remain at the store after it becomes a traditional Schnucks, while workers at the Chesterfield location will move to nearby Schnucks locations.

Numerous grocers have launched small-format stores in recent years as a way to expand their reach with shoppers and enter new markets. But success has been a mixed bag so far. Kroger, Publix and Amazon have all shuttered scaled-down grocery formats. Whole Foods Market axed its 365 store concept a few years ago, but earlier this year said it plans to try again with a new small-format store called Whole Foods Market Daily Shop.