Pet food chain Pet Valu closing all U.S. stores, including 7 in Richmond area

The Pet Valu at 1601 Willow Lawn Drive in Willow Lawn is among the seven stores in the region that will close as the pet supply company ceases operations nationwide. (Michael Schwartz photo).

The pandemic claimed another national retail chain on Nov. 4, putting a swath of Richmond-area storefronts with a total of roughly 27,000 square feet in play.

Pet Valu, a Pennsylvania-based pet food and supplies chain, announced it would shutter all of its 358 stores and warehouses in the United States and cease all operations nationwide. The move will eventually free up the brand’s seven local spaces, most of which are located in Henrico County.

Here are where the region’s Pet Valu stores are located:

• 1601 Willow Lawn Drive, Willow Lawn Shopping Center, 4,900 square feet

• 1352 Gaskins Road, #2, Gayton Crossing Shopping Center, 4,800 square feet

• 6593 Mechanicsville Turnpike, Brandy Creek Commons, 3,500 square feet

• 3036 Stony Point Road, Stony Point Village, 4,500 square feet

• 10730 Iron Bridge Road, Ironbridge Marketplace, 2,800 square feet

• 11839 W. Broad St., The Corner at Short Pump, 3,100 square feet

• 5304 Wyndham Forest Drive, Nuckols Place, 3,100 square feet

Pet Valu hasn’t announced an exact date for when its stores will close. The shuttering only affects Pet Valu U.S. A separate company based in Ontario, PetValu Canada, and its 600 stores are unaffected.

Thalhimer’s Jim Ashby, who handles leasing Gayton Crossing, Brandy Creek and Stony Point Village, said the Pet Valu announcement didn’t come as a total surprise, and that the centers are marketing the spaces in anticipation of Pet Valu’s exit.

“On the landlord side, we had been somewhat preparing for this announcement,” Ashby said. No new tenants have been lined up yet in the centers he leases.

No new tenants have claimed the Pet Valu spaces at The Corner, Nuckols Place and Ironbridge Marketplace, said Thalhimer’s Alicia Brown, who handles leasing at those centers.

A spokeswoman for Willow Lawn directed questions to Pet Valu. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Pet Valu’s demise is part of a wave of pain and closures in the retail sector. It has already come ashore in Richmond with the announcement that Stein Mart is closing all its stores including four locally amidst its bankruptcy. Other retailers to trim their local outposts in response to the pandemic include New York and Co. as well as Tuesday Morning.