By Imajae Johnson

Say goodbye to the savory taste of Farm Fresh’s fried chicken; the grocery store chain has recently announced the closure of the store.

Farm Fresh, known for its fried chicken, salad bar, Starbucks coffee, and its accessibility to Chartway Federal Credit Union will be closing 21 if its 38 stores, mostly in Virginia, and will be selling to its competitors, Kroger and Food Lion. Ten of the stores will go to Kroger’s Harris Teeter brand.

According to The Virginian Pilot, employees of Farm Fresh are being offered severance pay to eligible employees, and they are welcome to apply for jobs at Kroger and Food Lion. However, several employees were told they would lose this offer if they obtain jobs at Food Lion and Kroger.

Michael Wilken, spokesman for SUPERVALU, the corporation that manages Farm Fresh said, “We’re pleased to offer severance and other job transition support as a bridge for our employees…. However, we won’t go into detail on the severance plans as it’s personal and may vary by each individual.”

The issues don’t stop there, as customer prescriptions will be sent to a CVS or Rite Aid. For the stores that haven’t closed yet, customers will have to wait several more days to find out where their prescriptions are going.

As for the fried chicken, SUPERVALU says that they don’t know what will happened to the chicken recipe. The stores will be under their own facilitation and the company is open to recommendations and suggestions on what they should do with the production of the chicken.

The feeling is bittersweet for the end of Farm Fresh, but the future looks bright for Kroger and Food Lion.