Foods for Living to close at the end of June

TUESDAY, April 30 – Foods For Living, a well-known independent natural grocer in East Lansing since 1997, will close by the end of June.

Store director Rebecca Zader confirmed the plans in a call today.

“We don’t really have a whole lot to say at this moment,” Zader said. “We’re just not quite there yet.”

She said the shop will start liquidating its inventory in about a month.

The employee-owned health food retailer began as a small produce and supplement stop founded 27 years ago by John and Wilma Snyder. Since 2001, it has occupied a 15,000-square-foot storefront at 2655 E. Grand River Ave.

The news comes eight years after Whole Foods opened a new location just half a mile northwest, at 2750 E. Grand River Ave.

Its arrival was a major factor in the 2017 closure of the East Lansing Food Co-op, another local and organic grocer that had operated nearby at 4690 Northwind Drive since 1976. Six months later, Amazon purchased Whole Foods. The co-op has since reorganized as the Eastside Lansing Food Coop at 1605 E. Kalamazoo St., in Lansing.

Meanwhile, Foods for Living stayed the course and survived the pandemic. However, the imminent arrival of a new Trader Joe’s location just south of Whole Foods, at 2755 E. Grand River Ave., looks to be another factor in the Foods for Living’s decision to close shop in two months.

Also, Lansing State Journal reported yesterday that Okemos’ Stillwater Grill, 3544 Meridian Crossing Drive, ceased operations after nearly a quarter of a century in business.