The only grocery store in Rocky Top is going out of business, leaving longtime employees without jobs and sending shoppers miles away to the next nearest store.
"We’ve tried and tried to keep this place open for the community but we just got to the point where we just have to throw in the towel and say we’re done here," Patrick Asquith, the ShopRite's operations manager, said.
He said the store made some strategic decisions that didn't pan out and now their payroll costs are more than their weekly revenue.
The store's 18 employees will be let go sometime in the next two weeks.
"The best I have to offer them right now is thanks for years of service and you know here’s an unemployment check," Asquith said. "Telling them they’re looking at being laid off at any time...that was the hardest thing I think I’ve had to do in 25 years of business."
Vicki Keith is the deli manager and a single mom. She said the managers of the store have done everything they can to keep it open.
"They are absolutely two of the best together. Them as a pair. It’s just a perfect match."
Asquith and his co-manager are trying to raise money to buy the store and reopen it, but he's still looking for financing.
The next nearest grocery store is the Walmart in Clinton.
"Some of our customers don’t even have cars, or at least not reliable transportation. So I don’t know what those folks are going to do," Asquith said.