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Wawa looking to expand to central NC as Sheetz, Lidl plan to close Rocky Mount stores

A pair of national corporations are shutting down businesses in Rocky Mount in the coming weeks, causing concern among some in the community.
Posted 2022-07-19T22:59:13+00:00 - Updated 2022-07-20T13:24:36+00:00
Major businesses close doors, causing concern for Rocky Mount community

A pair of national corporations are shutting down businesses in Rocky Mount in the coming weeks, causing concern among some people in the community.

The Sheetz gas station and convenience store on Benvenue Road will close on Aug. 7, and the Lidl grocery store on Wesleyan Boulevard will close on July 31.

Economic developers said the closures of Sheetz and Lidl are disappointing, but the city is on track to see another year of significant economic growth.

"Sheetz has made the difficult decision to permanently close store #437, located along Benevenue Road, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on Sunday, Aug. 7," the company told WRAL News in a statement. "However, each of the employees at this store location have been offered employment at other nearby Sheetz locations."

The decision came as a surprise to many in the community.

"We need all the businesses we can in this town, we really do," Charles Davis said. "And, I hate to see them go, but I just really hope somebody’s here to replace them, I really do."

A spokesperson from Sheetz told WRAL News, "After a great deal of consideration, Sheetz decided to close this location because it was not meeting expectations." Developers, however, said the location has been one of the busiest storefronts in the city for some time.

Some in the community have begun to voice concerns that Sheetz’s decision was motivated by crime concerns.

A release from the U.S. Department of Justice showed that the Sheetz on Benvenue Road was robbed at gunpoint during a string of incidents in September 2019.

WRAL News asked a spokesperson for the company if crime played a role in its decision to close the store, but Sheetz didn’t respond to the inquiry.

"Certainly we were surprised, I’m not going to tell you we weren’t," Rocky Mount Chamber of Commerce President David Farris said.

Economic developers in the area have also been trying to understand the move, along with the departure of grocery store chain Lidl from its lone Rocky Mount location.

"We made the difficult decision to close the Rocky Mount store on July 31," a spokesperson for Lidl told WRAL News. "This was an underperforming location within our strongly growing store network and we made a strategic decision to close this location so we can focus on the locations where we are seeing significant growth."

The chamber of commerce director said the move was more easily understood, as Lidl has started to close three out of its initial five stores in North Carolina.

"We’re disappointed they’re leaving but we’ve got ten new stores opening in that same footprint area," Farris said.

Farris told WRAL News that some of those new stores could have been direct competitors with Sheetz.

A new 7-Eleven store was expected to open in the coming months at a site just down the road from the Sheetz location on Benvenue Road.

Additionally, northeast-based convenience store brand Wawa confirmed to WRAL News that it’s looking to move to the area.

"We can confirm that we are expanding to North Carolina and are actively looking into potential sites for new Wawa stores in the state including Rocky Mount," a spokesperson for Wawa said. "Right now, we hope to open our first stores in the state by the end of 2024."

Economic developers said they hated to lose both businesses, but Rocky Mount’s chamber of commerce was on track to bring in more than 100 new ones by the end of 2022.

"I’ve got confidence in the Rocky Mount area," Farris said. "They are seeing something, this is just a corporate decision, and it won’t be the last."

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