Lamar Safeway to close, leaving fewer options for groceries and medicine

LAMAR, Colo. — Safeway will be shuttering its doors in Lamar after 50 years of serving the community. 

The closure, scheduled for Nov. 7, will leave the 7,600-person town to rely on two remaining grocery stores — Farmer's Country Market and Walmart Supercenter. 

“I think we can sustain ourselves for now, but the concern is the loss of tax revenue and leakage out to other communities as people choose to shop outside of the City of Lamar,” said Lamar Mayor Kirk Crespin. 

Crepsin said he has been collaborating with Joe Ayala, the Mayor of La Junta — a town an hour west of Lamar, whose Safeway location is also closing the same day — to find a solution to the vacancy. In total, 10 Safeway locations across Colorado will be closing.

In a Sept. 10 statement, the grocery chain announced that stores in Colorado, New Mexico, and Nebraska are shutting down due to low sales.

“We’re still searching for somebody to take that location and continue to provide grocery services in Lamar,” said Crespin. 

Grocery services are not the only concern — 53 employees will be let go and some residents who use the Safeway pharmacy fear the closure will disrupt their medicine supply. 

“Walmart doesn't have the food that Safeway did nor the quality and I don't like our other two pharmacies down here,” said Ramona Cheasebro. 

The closure will also impact local food pantries in the town. Safeway is the largest local contributor to Sparrow House Ministries, which receives expiring bread, dairy products and other foods from the store on a weekly basis.

“In addition to donations, Sparrow House would apply for Albertsons Foundation’s grants that would give us the ability to provide holiday foods to the families we serve,” a spokesperson for Sparrow House said. “We can only apply for these grants if we have a local Safeway store, so now it is not an option.” 

Overall, the spokesperson said the closure will negatively impact Sparrow House Ministries’ budget by about $30,000 per year.

Some Lamar residents said they will tap into more local food sources after the closure. Monty Thompson shared that he and his wife shop at Safeway weekly and get their prescriptions there. 

“Prices were too high. We won't have to travel, but we will choose to for some things,” Thompson said. “Walmart's meat selection is horrible in terms of quality, and Farmer’s Market offers the staples, so we will continue to shop mostly local.”

He said that he gets his local pork and beef at Wiley Processing LLC when they can. 

“It seems like the popularity has been increasing,” Josh Weimer, who owns the local meat processor with his wife Jana Weimer, said. 

The meat processor, located in Wiley just 20 minutes northwest of Lamar, operates on 20,000 acres of native grass and serves about 25 families a day, according to the Weimers.

“I think a lot of people have never had a dry-aged, good steak to be honest with you,” Weimer said.