After next week, the city of Adairville will officially be without a grocery store.

Houchens Industries has been operating IGA supermarket on the town square since purchasing it from Jerry Hoover in July of 2008.

On Thursday, Stephen Reed, the director of retail operations for Houchens, said the store would close today and reopen Monday for one week of clearance sales.

Reed said the goal is for Houchens to be completely out of Adairville by the end of next week.

“We’ve only been there in Adairville a short period of time and the store never did perform,” Reed said.

The store on the square was never meant to be a long-term project for the Bowling Green-based company, however.

The plan was for Houchens Industries to purchase land elsewhere in the city to build a brand-new Crossroads IGA facility – which is a combination gas station and full-service grocery store.

Part of the land Houchens wanted to buy was owned by Adairville and the city council had several months of lively debate before agreeing to sell after the local chamber of commerce got involved in the deal.

The council voted to sell the land, which housed the town’s maintenance garage, in December of 2008.

The sale of the land was completed, but in addition to closing the store on the square, Houchens has also abandoned the plan of building a Crossroads IGA in Adairville.

“We do not plan to develop that property any longer,” Reed said. “The store development arm will put the property on the market.”

Adairville mayor Jim Wilkerson expressed his displeasure with the turn of events.

“The chamber and city joined hands to get that deal closed – that’s how helpful and concerned we tried to be,” Wilkerson said. “We feel like (Houchens) came in and raised their prices and tried to make us just a milk and bread store.”

Wilkerson said he hopes the city isn’t without a grocery store for long.

“This is a disappointment, but we aggressively work to have a grocery in the city of Adairville,” he said.

Meanwhile, Reed said the current employees at the Adairville store will be given an opportunity to continue to work for Houchens, if they so choose.

“If someone wants to travel, we’ll try and find an opportunity,” he said. “There’s nothing in the general neighborhood, but we do have a couple other gas stations in Logan County and another IGA in Lewisburg.”

Reed went on to say that the Lewisburg IGA is doing well and in no danger of being closed.