By Ava Strauss

The Sprouts grocery store near Williams Village closed in early September, leaving CU Boulder students who rely on the nearby grocery store with less options for shopping. 

According to the CU Boulder website, approximately 3,500 to 3,600 students live in Williams Village. The closure, which happened on Sept. 4,  uniquely affects students without cars who will have to travel farther for grocery shopping.

“It’s going to make getting groceries a little more inconvenient, because I can’t just drive to Trader Joes, so I’d have to walk home with groceries which is annoying,” Gracie Goldstein said.  

Goldstein, along with many other freshmen, does not have a car, which further complicates the task. What used to be a simple two- to five-minute walk to and from Sprouts has increased eightfold because the closest grocery store to Williams Village is the Safeway on Baseline Road.

Walking would take around 30-35 minutes while driving would take 5-7 minutes. 

“It was mostly because of the landlord selling that property and that building was going to close and they didn’t have a place to relocate,” Hannah Allen said. 

Allen, a Sprouts manager, currently works at the store on Arapahoe Avenue but managed the Baseline location last summer. 

The complex that once housed the grocer, the Dark Horse and a handful of other businesses is looking to add apartments and expand their shopping center. 

“The ground level is going to be retail and then it’s going to have apartments above,” Allen said.   

As for the Sprouts employees, their jobs remain. 

“All of them who have chosen to stay with the company have been relocated either to my store, the Lafayette store or to Longmont,” Allen said. 

The closure will affect more than just the freshmen.  

“I’m a senior so I don’t have much longer here but I love Sprouts in general and for those living in Will-Ville, it is so convenient and I just feel like that’s going to impact a lot of people,” senior Kylie Cohen said. 

In Cohen’s experience, Sprouts often offered weekly deals and was overall a convenient and money conscious choice for CU students. She recalled shopping there around once a week during her freshman year.  

The closure marks the end of a 17-year run for the grocery store, which opened at the Williams Village location in 2009.