POQUOSON, Virginia — One of the last remaining locations of a once widespread Hampton Roads grocery chain is closing its doors.
Farm Fresh Poquoson announced it would permanently close because "the store never reached the volume needed to sustain a location," the management said in a social media post.
Farm Fresh was founded in 1957 and served Virginia and North Carolina for 60 years before selling the majority of its stores in 2018. Several locations would eventually be bought and converted into other grocery chains, including Harris Teeter and Food Lion, but a handful of new owners kept the Farm Fresh name and brand. Other locations were closed.
The Poquoson store located at 460 Wythe Creek Road was originally one of those locations that closed in 2018. But the store reopened under new owners in 2022.
Customers are lamenting that the supermarket wasn't able to last.
"I was so shocked because I used to work here and I just love Farm Fresh," shopper Sheila Taylor said on Thursday. "You know, it's small enough to know you and large enough to serve you."
"There's going to be about a thousand units that are being built in Poquoson, so we're really going to need extra grocery stores," noted another customer, Dianne Sun. "That's why I say it's a shame that the timing on this is such, because if they had held in there just a little longer, I think they could done well."
There are now only two Farm Fresh locations left in Hampton Roads: a Farm Fresh on Victory Boulevard in Portsmouth, and a Farm Fresh "International" Market on Chatham Drive in Newport News. Both are owned by businessman Chris Lee, who also owns Grand Mart International Market in Virginia Beach.