Closing of Hayfield grocery store on hold

Closing of Hayfield’s only grocery store is currently on hold pending a potential sale.

Jim Baldus, owner of Ryan’s Foods, said last Friday there was a potential buyer of the store. He said earlier this week he hoped to have additional information by the end of the week.

Baldus announced earlier this month that Ryan’s Foods would be shutting its doors permanently by the end of the month or early November. The closing, he said, was due to the condition of the building, specifically the roof which needs to be completely replaced for a retail business such as a grocery store to continue to operate.

Baldus said he had looked at all the options for financing replacement of the roof, but none of them worked out. He added that the City of Hayfield and the Hayfield Economic Development Authority had tried to find options that would work. He also looked at finding a new location in the city, but that effort was also unsuccessful.

“We have tried doing everything,” he said at the time.

Baldus, who also owns Jim’s Marketplace in Austin, said that he has owned Ryan’s Foods for 25 years. The closing, he said, was especially hard because the store was named after his son, Ryan, who died last year.

While the store had plans to begin sales on all food items those sales were put on hold when a potential buyer emerged.

Ryan’s Food, he said, has eight employees. Baldus had said initially he planned to offer all of them employment at Jim’s Marketplace.

Baldus said they already have many Hayfield residents shopping at Jim’s Marketplace because many of them work in Austin about 18 miles from Hayfield.

The closing of Ryan’s Foods would leave the community of just over 1,300 with few options to buy groceries, especially produce. A Dollar General opened in the city last year and the Casey’s store does carry some food products.