Gravois Road Blockbuster Not Included Among St. Louis-Area Closures

Dish Network is closing nine of 16 Blockbusters in the St. Louis area this spring, though the Affton store at Gravois and Mackenzie has been spared.

Dish Network Corp, which owns Blockbuster, plans to close nine stores in the St. Louis area this spring--though the location in Affton at Gravois and Mackenzie roads will remain open. The closures are part of an announced plan to close 300 stores across the country. According to a story in the Denver Post, the closures include stores which were underperforming or were near the end of their leases.  About 500 Blockbuster stores were closed last year including 10 of 26 locations in St. Louis area, according to a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This round of closures will leave just seven stores in St. Louis.  Most locations slated to close have stopped renting movies and have begun the liquidation process. Many are slated to close on …

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Sappington Farmers' Market Hopes for Short Goodbye

The shelves are empty and Farmer Fred is gone--but customers of the longtime Watson Road market "will see the farmer once again." Owners are looking at a handful of potential sites for a new store, according to their PR representative.

While managers of the Sappington Farmers' Market, 8400 Watson Rd., had announced an Aug. 24 closing for the store, longtime customers hoping to scoop up a last grocery cart of goodies have just about cleaned it out. Management told Patch last week that they would be selling remaining items at increasing discounts until stock was gone. A visit to the store on Aug. 20 revealed mostly empty shelves, and a handful of employees sweeping floors where displays had been moved. Farmer Fred, the fiberglass statue that greeted visitors with his son, Clyde, has been removed from the property. So has the fiberglass cow formerly located just inside the main entrance. "Thanks for the memories!" a sign on the entrance door reads. Owners will decide after …

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Hanneke Hardware Closing Affton Store After Lease Dispute

A liquidation sale will begin on Thursday, and the store will close by April 1.

Hanneke Hardware’s Affton location on Gravois has lost its lease and will close by the end of the month, according to the owners. “We were a subtenant of Walgreens, and unfortunately Walgreens’ lease expires at the end of the month with the landlord, and the landlord and I could not come to economic terms in order to stay there,” said Michael Grewe, Vice President of Sales and Land Acquisition at GJ Grewe Commercial Real Estate, whose wife Christine Kantis-Grewe bought the store last year. According to Ian Gunn, manager of Hanneke’s store on Southwest Avenue, the owner of the space at 10042 Gravois Rd. wanted to double the business’s rent to continue the lease. “They were not being very kind about that,” Gunn said. “There wasn’t anything …

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Affton's Haas Baking Co. Closes

The pastries distributor, specializing in gooey butter cake, has shuttered due to the bad economy.

Martello's Closes After Only Three Months

The Italian restaurant on Mackenzie Road is gone after opening in October.