After months of vendor issues and barren shelves, at least one Planet Organic location in Edmonton has shuttered its doors.
Last week, a sign at Edmonton’s Ellerslie location on Parsons Road SW read: “Attention Customers. Thank you for your continued support over the years. Planet Organic is now closed.”
The lights were off at the store. The shelves still had some product on them but many were bare.
The landlord of the Ellerslie location, Asset Management & Operations, confirmed that Planet Organic is no longer open and it is currently working with the tenant. This comes after local companies said Planet Organic owed thousands of dollars in payments for product.
Several Edmonton-based businesses told Global News in January that they were still waiting on payment: Honest Dumplings was owed $6,000, while Pinnochio Ice Cream was waiting on $13,248.
Then, on Feb. 26, the company CEO Alan Thompson confirmed to Global News that it had “temporarily laid off some of our employees. This was an action that we needed to take while we finalize our restructuring.”
On social media Tuesday, reports circulated that the company had internally told employees it is closing all its stores. According to the Planet Organic website, it has four locations in the Edmonton area, five in Calgary, one in B.C, and another in Ontario.
The market was founded in 1993 in Edmonton.
Credit: Global News. By: Allison Bench