By Tim Mekeel, Lancasteronline.com
Stauffers of Kissel Hill said Wednesday it will close its undersized Oregon Pike store and garden center a year from now.
The Lititz-based company said all 63 employees at the 1850 Oregon Pike location will be offered jobs at its other two locations in the county.
Opened in 1964, the Stauffers store and garden center is a mere 22,000 square feet, about a third the size of its main competitors.
And the landlocked Manheim Township property, between Roseville Tavern, an athletic field and an orthodontist practice, offers no way to expand.
Those physical restrictions, said Stauffers spokeswoman Debi Drescher, make it “difficult to offer the products and services that are expected in today’s supermarkets and garden centers.”
Drescher said Stauffers is announcing the June 30, 2018 closing now to give its employees ample notice.
They will be offered jobs at its supermarkets and garden centers at 301 Rohrerstown Road (East Hempfield Township) and 1050 Lititz Pike (Warwick Township), she said.
Stauffers will maintain its current level of selection and customer service at the Oregon Pike until the location closes, Drescher said.
Stauffers leases the 2.95-acre site from StoBro Co., a real estate partnership that includes former Stauffers executives. StoBro partner and former Stauffers president Paul Stauffer said there is no plan for a future use at this time.
Wednesday’s announcement marks the second time this year that a Lancaster County supermarket operator decided to close locations that were too small to be competitive.
In May, Giant shuttered its North Reservoir Street and Fruitville Pike stores.
Stauffers’ announcement also marks the second closing of an undersized Lancaster County location. In 2005, the company’s Leola store of 30,000 square feet went dark.