Fresh Thyme Farmers Market in Mount Prospect to close Aug. 30
The Chicago area's first Fresh Thyme Farmers Market in Mount Prospect will fall short of its 10th anniversary with the announcement that it will close Aug. 30.
The roughly 35,000-square-foot space at 211 W. Rand Road replaced a Sports Authority when it opened in late April 2014.
Meijer has some ownership of the Fresh Thyme brand and confirmed the imminent closure Friday.
The company made the decision not to renew its lease after much consideration, and is offering positions at other nearby locations to all its Mount Prospect employees, Meijer Senior Director of Corporate Communications Frank J. Guglielmi said.
The village learned of the decision Thursday and will begin working with the owner of the Randhurst Commons shopping center to find a new use for the space, Mount Prospect Community Development Director Bill Cooney said.
Fresh Thyme lies between Northern Tool + Equipment and Crunch Fitness in the center.
"Fresh Thyme has experienced mixed success in the Chicago area with several underperforming stores," said John C. Melaniphy, president of Chicago-based retail consulting firm Melaniphy & Associates. "The first was in Deerfield that closed in 2018 at Waukegan Road and Lake-Cook Road in Deerfield. The company cited access and visibility challenges with the location as the primary reason for the poor performance."
As for the Mount Prospect location, Melaniphy said its estimated $15 million in annual sales represent about 13% of the grocery category of the village's sales tax revenue and 5% of its total sales tax.
"The Chicago Metropolitan Area is an extremely competitive market with total retail sales of $19.6 billion in 2022, up by 9.7% since 2021," Melaniphy said. "The COVID-19 pandemic closed restaurants and artificially inflated the demand for grocery stores which saw strong sales productivity during the pandemic."
However, once COVID restrictions were lifted and restaurant dining rooms reopened, grocery store sales moderated in 2021, Melaniphy added.
"Many grocery operations spent significantly on food delivery infrastructure, logistics, 'touchless delivery,' and store pickup in an effort to compete with Amazon," he said.
A number of grocery chains have entered the Chicago market and subsequently closed stores in recent years, said Melaniphy adding, even Amazon Fresh Market has met with poor performance in the region.