Earth Fare, a specialty natural and organic grocery store and full-service supermarket, will begin inventory liquidation sales at all of its stores. Pursuant to the Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification Act, all employees have been notified of the impending closure of the company's stores and corporate office. During this time, the company will continue to pursue a sale of assets, in whole or in parts.

"Earth Fare has been proud to serve the natural and organic grocery market, and the decision to begin the process of closing our stores was not entered into lightly. We'd like to thank our team members for their commitment and dedication to serving our customers, and our vendors and suppliers for their partnership," the company said in a statement.

Over the course of the past few years, the company has implemented numerous strategic initiatives aimed at growth and expansion and enhancing the customer experience.

"While many of these initiatives improved the business, continued challenges in the retail industry impeded the company's progress as well as its ability to refinance its debt," the company said in the statement. "As a result, Earth Fare is not in a financial position to continue to operate on a go-forward basis. As such, we have made the difficult, but necessary decision to commence inventory liquidation sales while we continue to engage in a process to find potential suitors for our stores."

The inventory liquidation sales will feature an assortment of merchandise at very significant price reductions. Store fixtures are also available for sale as part of this process.