PARADISE — Holiday Market’s closure of its Paradise location Friday night surprised some prospective shoppers who thought the store would stay open through January.
Ten days earlier, the supermarket’s Cottonwood-based parent company announced the store would close by the end of January. The store, located at 6848 Skyway, featured mostly empty shelves and equipment Saturday morning. The parking lot of the complex had a few scattered cars but was otherwise deserted.
Paradise resident Loren Guillen, who worked at the store until the end, waited outside for his final paycheck Saturday. He said the closure announcement less than two weeks ago “surprised” many regular patrons.
“Pretty much the whole town was surprised,” he said. “There was a Facebook page set up — under Paradise Rants and Raves, I think — and it told people to call the owners and try to convince them not to close.”
However, the decision came as a result of cold, hard numbers as they pertained to the business and its performance, according to Brad Askeland, president of North State Grocery, Inc., Holiday’s owner.
“With more than 50 years on the Ridge, we were determined to overcome the 2018 Camp Fire catastrophe,” Askeland said in a news release Jan. 17 announcing the closure. “Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, our Paradise store has never recovered.”
The store was the “anchor” tenant — by far the largest in terms of square footage — in the complex. Its departure will leave only a Tri-Counties Bank branch, the Paradise Stronger wellness center, Curves fitness center, Mid Valley Title and Escrow, A Cut Above salon and Little Caesars Pizza, with a few storefronts already vacant.
John Little of Paradise drove into the parking lot and approached the store, but a Holiday employee advised him the store was permanently closed. He said he thought the store might be open through the end of the month.
“I was going to do a little shopping if it had been open,” he said, adding that Holiday had discounted many of its items since the closure announcement. “I’ll be going to Grocery Outlet now.”
Grocery Outlet is located at 6800 Skyway, just west of the complex where Holiday was located. Save Mart, at 6636 Clark Road, is the only other large grocery store in Paradise. Safeway was destroyed in the 2018 Camp Fire.
“I think Save Mart is a bit expensive, but so was Holiday,” Little said.
Loss felt
The complex in which Holiday was located played a critically important role during the chaos from the Nov. 8, 2018, Camp Fire. Due to its large paved parking lot, it was the rallying point for people trying to leave the town but who were cut off by flames.
Steve Crowder, Paradise Town Council member and former mayor, said the store’s closing disappointed him.
“Holiday was a longtime staple in Paradise,” he said Saturday. “Our (population) numbers are going up and we’re growing at a fairly fast pace. I don’t know what their numbers were, but I know how the people feel about it.”
Crowder said the town’s loss of sales-tax revenue from the Holiday departure wouldn’t be as significant since most of the food for sale there wasn’t taxed, pointing out most sales tax is generated from prepared foods.
Even so, “the loss of anything like this store isn’t good.”
Crowder said nobody at Town Hall had any knowledge of the closure until the Jan. 17 press release came out.
“I heard of rumblings (of a possible closure) about two years ago. I stopped by the store and talked to the manager, and asked him if there was anything we could do to help. He said, ‘No, we’re all right,’ ” Crowder said.
North State Grocery also owns the Sav-Mor Foods store in Magalia, which has remained strong in the years following the Camp Fire and will stay open. All the employees at the Paradise Holiday Market will keep their jobs but will need to transfer to Orland, Corning or Gridley.
