Alfalfa’s Market to Go Dark for Good

Alfalfa’s Market, a Boulder, Colo.-based natural and organic grocery icon with roots dating back to the late 70s, is reportedly shuttering its third and last location as soon as this April 18.

“Unfortunately, the ownership group of Alfalfa’s has decided to close the business down entirely. We will most likely close the door to our last location in Louisville for good this Sunday,” an employee of the Louisville store told WGB via email.

“This is a grow or die business,” Alfalfa’s Market CEO Mark Homlish told WGB in June 2020, during an interview to discuss the grocer’s then soon-to-open Longmont, Colo., location—its third store in the state—as well as its future expansion plans.

In late February, Alfalfa’s announced it would close its flagship store at 1651 Broadway in Boulder, citing pandemic-related issues as a contributing cause. Just weeks later, local media outlet BizWest reported that Alfalfa’s would close its location in Longmont, Colo., a little more than five months after opening.

Alfalfa’s Longmont location, like its others, emphasized high-quality produce and fresh prepared foods. Its Longmont store even featured a first of its kind “Produce Lab,” which the company described as an open-air station inside the produce department that is designed to bring live culinary theater to the store. Similar to a restaurant’s open-kitchen layout, shoppers could watch firsthand how team members slice and dice produce.

The grocer has been on the natural and organic food scene since 1979, when it was founded as Pearl Street Market in Boulder. Growing to 11 stores, it merged with Wild Oats Markets in the 1990s, and was then divested in 2007, when Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market purchased the chain. In 2017, Homlish and William “Tripp” Wall, VP of wealth management company Alliance Bernstein, purchased Alfalfa’s from founders Mark Retzloff and Barney Feinblum.

Wild Oats Markets is another well-known notch in Colorado’s Boulder-born natural foods grocery scene. Founded in 1987 by Libby Cook and Mike Gilliland, Wild Oats operated a chain of stores in the Western and Southwestern U.S. In 2007, it was initially purchased by Whole Foods Market, but that deal was later reversed.

Other homegrown, food-centric Colorado grocers have faced similar storms. Lucky’s Market, founded in Niwot, Colo., in 2003 by the husband and wife team of Bo and Trish Sharon, hitched its wagon to expansion with The Kroger Co. in 2016, but lost the financial backing of the Cincinnati-based grocer in January 2020 and was forced to close all of its stores with the exception of its original Boulder location at 3960 Broadway St. and a second store in Fort Collins, Colo.