Bob’s Red Mill announced this week that the company’s Whole Grain Store and cafe in Milwaukie will soon close. The announcement comes a little less than a year after the death of Bob Moore, the company’s founder and namesake, on Feb. 10, 2024.
Bob’s Red Mill CEO Trey Winthrop told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Sunday will be the last day the cafe will be open, but the Whole Grain Store will keep its doors open until Feb. 17. Both will keep their regular hours until they close for good, and store products are 50% off in preparation for closing, the company said in a Facebook post.
Winthrop added that the company had been discussing the possibility of closing the store and cafe for several months, but the decision was finalized this week.
“Despite everyone’s best efforts, the store and restaurant have been operating at a substantial loss for quite some time,” Winthrop said, adding that the company’s core focus was on manufacturing and distributing food. “We just no longer have the option of putting resources into something that’s not one of our core competencies.”
Winthrop declined to say how much of a loss the store was operating at.
Another factor in the store’s closure, Winthrop said, was that it no longer served its original purpose. The Whole Grain Store opened in 2003 so customers could buy products they couldn’t find in other stores. The fact that Bob’s Red Mill products are widely available now played a role in the company’s decision to close the store.
The closure will leave the cafe’s 25 employees and the store’s 19 employees without a job, Bob’s Red Mill spokesperson Jenni Brennan said in an email. Of those 44 employees, 35 work full time.
Winthrop said that the company is inviting the store and cafe’s employees to apply for other positions at the company — although there are only 20 positions currently available, Brennan said.
— Tatum Todd is a breaking news reporter who covers public safety, crime and community news. Reach them at [email protected] or 503-221-4313.
