Schnucks closing East St. Louis store

Schnuck Markets will close its grocery store in East St. Louis next month.

The St. Louis-based grocery store chain announced Tuesday that its store at 2511 State St. will permanently close at 6 p.m. May 2. Company spokeswoman Lori Willis declined to comment about the closure.

Schnucks chairman and chief executive officer Todd Schnuck released a statement Tuesday thanking the city and its residents.

“We are grateful to our East St. Louis customers for their support and patronage over the past 20 years and hope to continue serving them at our other metro-east locations,” Schnuck said.

Schnucks was founded in St. Louis in 1939 and today operates 99 grocery stores and 94 in-store pharmacies throughout the Midwest.

East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks said he is disappointed to hear about Schnucks’ decision and will work to keep the store open in town.

“We will do everything we can to make sure we have a full-service grocery store in that location, preferably Schnucks,” Parks said. “It is better to keep what you have than attract something new. If we have to attract something new, we will do so. We will work to keep them here, or some full-service grocery store.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2015 at 6:31 PM with the headline "Schnucks closing East St. Louis store."