Foxtrot To Reopen After Abruptly Closing Stores

Foxtrot will reopen after abruptly closing its stores earlier this year.

Chicago Eater reports that Foxtrot announced plans to reopen 15 stores in Chicago, Dallas, and Austin, Texas, this summer. Foxtrot’s former parent company, Outfox Hospitality, suddenly ceased operations on April 23, 2024, shocking the store’s loyal shoppers.

The newsletter Snaxshot broke the news in April that Foxtrot, with 33 locations in Chicago, Austin, Dallas, and the D.C. area, was closing all of its stores. Now the company’s website teases new beginnings for the old favorite. It says, “A new Foxtrot with some old friends. Coming soon.”

Modern Retail asked store founder Mike LaVitola why he wanted to reopen Foxtrot. While he admitted it would be easier to let the brand go, he would instead do the right thing regarding the store’s loyal employees and its longstanding customer base.

“The easy thing to do is to let it go,” LaVitola stated. “But who does that help? It doesn’t help any of our vendors, it doesn’t help any of our employees, it doesn’t help any of the community surrounding Foxtrot. We were able to lift up literally hundreds of new and emerging CPG companies that got their start in Foxtrot… I think the right thing to do is put in the effort, and realize there was something. There was a really powerful ecosystem here, and I think that’s something worth fighting for.”

LaVitola founded Foxtrot in 2015 as an upscale convenience store. He realized that people wanted more engagement than the standard supermarket. “People want to touch and feel products and talk to experts,” LaVitola told Chicago Magazine in 2020. 

Crain’s Chicago Business reports around a dozen pre-existing Foxtrot spaces will eventually reopen. The first two will be in the Gold Coast and Old Town outposts. “It’s a totally new company starting from scratch, but (we) have the Foxtrot name and the (intellectual property) and a bunch of our locations,” LaVitola said. “We’re like a new startup again.”