An Unexpected Restaurant Is Now Closing After 30 Years

May 14, 2024

Updated on May 15, 2024

An unexpected restaurant is now closing after 30 years in Tucson, Arizona, leaving customers with one less location in the state.

After serving as a staple for over 30 years, Magpies Gourmet Pizza announced it is shutting down a location for good.

The restaurant said on Facebook that it lost its lease and its last day in business will be Saturday, May 18.

The closure affects the restaurant’s location on historic 4th Avenue in Tucson, Arizona.

“It has been our utmost pleasure to serve you great local pizza and wings for over 30 years on 4th Avenue,” the restaurant’s post read.

“We cannot thank all of you enough for your support over the years.”

Magpies Gourmet Pizza on 4th Avenue was created by Ricky Acedo in 1989 and has since grown to serve the downtown, north side, and east sides of Tucson.

After hearing the news, customers commented on the restaurant’s post and expressed disappointment and sadness.

Some thanked the pizzeria for feeding the community for over three decades.

“4th Ave Mag’s, your calzones got me through retail hell down the street at Loose Change for many years. You’ll be missed,” one person wrote.

“Sad. I was one of the very first employees there, decades ago,” a second person wrote.

Some residents are crediting the demise of businesses on 4th Avenue to the University of Arizona and their new dorms recently built on the street.

“Does anyone even care about 4th Avenue anymore?” one resident asked.

“It was a huge mistake to allow that behemoth of a dormitory in the neighborhood.”

But another resident of Tucson, Henry Cortez, chimed in and said he believes the real culprit hurting small businesses in the area is the Tempe Streetcar.

The streetcar connects riders to Tucson neighborhoods, business centers, and regional events – but reduces foot traffic to local hotspots like Magpies.

“Lots of local businesses suffered,” Cortez said.

The closure now leaves only two other Magpies locations open for business.

One is located on Tucson’s north side on Oracle Road and the other is on the city’s east side on Houghton Road.

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Also Read: An Unexpected Retailer Is Now Closing All Stores in Illinois

Other Economy News Today

A whopping 3,000 retail stores will now close this year after popular clothing brands Rue21 and and Express announced their closures.

The list now grows to approximately 3,100 stores shutting down by the end of this year, per The-Sun.

And this number figure is expected to grow as more businesses announce closures throughout the remainder of the year.

Rue 21 recently announced bankruptcy and a plan to close all 540 remaining stores across the US in the next six weeks.

Express also announced plans on closing over 100 stores across the US in addition to a store closure in Central New York.

If the rising rate of retailers closing down stores continues, an estimated 8,000 locations will be closed by the end of the year.

That many closures would be 40% more than the US saw last year.

In 2023, over 4,000 retailers shut down stores, which was twice the amount of store closures from 2022, according to the National Retail Federation.

2023 also saw the closing of hundreds of Bed, Bath and Beyond stores after the major retailer filed for bankruptcy.

The retailer cited inflation as the primary reason for shutting down its in person stores, moving to an online only format.

The inflation rates from January 2023 to January 2024 increased by 3.1%, with food prices rising by 2.6%, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In response to the rising rate of inflation, many stores are raising prices or risk closing.

One Canadian supermarket, Loblaws, raised its food prices so dramatically that customers are staging a boycott for the whole month of May.

The Dollar Tree, a retailer known for everything in its stores being $1 or less, announced that it will be raising prices on certain items to as high as $7.

“This year, across 3,000 stores, we expect to expand our multi-price assortment by over 300 items at price points ranging from $1.50 to $7,” the company’s CEO, Rick Dreiling, said during an earnings call.

The last time the discount chain announced a price hike was in 2021 when prices on select items went from $1 to $1.25.

Aside from raising its prices, Dreiling also announced that over 1000 stores will most likely be closing in 2024.

Other major retailers such as Walgreens, Walmart, and JCPenney announced major closures this year.

Walmart announced store closures in California, Ohio, and Maryland–totaling to six closures so far this year.

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Also Read: Retirees Will Now Receive More Money For Social Security

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