Pamplico IGA, town’s only grocery store, set to close at end of month

PAMPLICO, S.C. (WBTW) — Imagine only having one grocery store in your town, and after decades of relying on it, it’s closing, and the nearest one is 15-20 minutes away.

That’s exactly what Pamplico residents are experiencing with the area’s IGA store set to close at the end of the month. They’re buying their groceries while they still can.

Employees at the Pamplico store said they’re not allowed to talk to media, but directed News13 to a spokesperson at Alex Lee, IGA’s parent company.

The spokesperson said their lease will expire soon and decided not to renew it because the Pamplico store is older and smaller than their other locations.

The IGA store isn’t closing until the end of the month, giving all 26 store employees ample time to find a job at another IGA location.

The spokesperson also said Alex Lee is helping independent retailers find locations and open stores like the Pamplico IGA, but she didn’t say if any of the retailers signed a lease at that specific space.

Tiffanie Wright lives in Pamplico and said she’ll miss having a full grocery store in the area. She feels for those who can’t drive to another one further away.

“This is the only store we have down here with groceries. I know we got a Dollar General down the road, but it [doesn’t] have that much stuff that IGA has,” she said. “But I just kind of hate it for, you know, the people who don’t even have cars or anything like that. They’ve got to find a ride to the store and everything like that.”

The nearest grocery store to Pamplico is KJ’s Market in Florence.

An IGA customer said the 15-20 minute trip over there is not ideal, but Pamplico residents said they’ll have to make the best of it.

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