Sutton’s Foods in Arcanum, an 86-year-old fixture in Darke County, is closing

Sutton's Foods, a Darke County fixture at least 86 years, is closing, according to a note posted to social media Friday afternoon.

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In the letter, dated Feb. 28:

"To all our loyal Sutton's customers, 

Unfortunately, due to matters beyond our control we have made the decision to CLOSE our store. 

We would like to thanks all our loyal customers from the past 86 years! Please accept our sincere 

apologies for not being able to sustain our business in this great community." 

Signed 

Kirby & Lori Sutton 

Josh and Shala Urlage 

The new posted hours at the Arcanum store, 605 N. Main St., will be 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Closed on Sunday and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

In July 2019, News Center 7's Steve Baker reported the closure of the Sutton's location in Union City.

“It's solely based on the fact that we can't compete…It makes us very sad that we have to but it's due to matters that are beyond our control. We tried for two years and we want to thank all of our loyal customers that served us,” said Lori Sutton, one of the owners.

The Sutton family opened the Union City location in September 2017 at a former Marsh grocery store.

During the three months the grocery store was closed while the Sutton's worked to buy it, customers made other shopping habits that were hard to break, Sutton said. The store over its two years wasn't able to win back all the customers.

The Arcanum store was started in 1934 by Kirby Sutton's grandfather, making Kirby and Lori third-generation owners and Josh and Shala fourth-generation owners.

In April 2019, the Sutton family was fighting desperately to keep the Arcanum location open.

Again, the problem was maintainingg competitive balance.

At that time, Josh Urlage, a third-generation owner, told the Dayton Daily News, "We're just going through kind of a hard time right now as some small businesses are. We're here and we're here to stay."

He asked the community to "keep supporting us as much as possible and we will continue to be a pillar in this community as long as we can."

The Arcanum store, 15 miles from the Darke County seat in Greenville, has been the only full-service grocery in town.

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