Dean & DeLuca, the gourmet grocer whose trend-setting New York store introduced Americans to international delicacies more than four decades ago, has shut its flagship location in Manhattan, Bloomberg News reported. The chain has been struggling to hold on amid stalling sales and a cutthroat competitive landscape, and suppliers have gone to court over unpaid bills. Some shelves at the main store were bare in recent weeks, and some other U.S. locations have been shuttered. Dean & DeLuca’s pioneering business model helped create a cohort of upscale gourmets, but now those same consumers are being targeted by bigger rivals with deeper pockets. Items that once were hard to get are now readily available from massive chains such as Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods and its online parent, Amazon.com Inc.
