After years of a grocery store on the Southwest corner of Grand Avenue and Bay Street in Chippewa Falls, the delayed fate of Gordy’s is coming to an end, at least for now. A smaller supermarket named The National preceded Gordy’s IGA, which expanded multiple times, resulting in the demolition of the Carnegie Library and the later closure of a block of Grand Avenue to improve parking.
When Gordy’s took on excessive debt to distributor Spartan Nash, the store went up for sale, only being saved for a few years by the takeover by Spartan Nash and conversion to Family Fare. Competition from Festival Foods which built an up-to-date store in 2023 on Chippewa Crossing Boulevard had an immediate negative effect on business downtown and the other Family Fare located near Lake Wissota closed recently. The downtown store’s closure was announced in February with a possible end date in April. As of March 2026, 20% discounts are running throughout the store and merchandise is closing out fast. It has been a slow-motion collapse since Gordy’s County Market operated stores across the state and also in Chippewa Commons which has been converted to storage by U-Haul. Down the street, long running Sokup’s market still brings in business on a small scale, but no other convenient downtown supermarket is left or forthcoming.
https://www.weau.com/2026/02/11/spartanash-lay-off-57-workers-family-fare-chippewa-falls/
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