Sun Fresh is closing another KC location.
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Months after a high-profile grocery store closure on Kansas City’s East Side, another Sun Fresh is closing in the Kansas City metro.
The Northland location at 4357 NE Chouteau Trafficway will stop serving customers Feb. 28, according to store director Mike Cooley.
The store, which Cooley said is independently owned by an individual located in California, has begun to discount its items to 25% off. Other Sun Fresh locations will remain open.
“This owner, this is the only location he has,” Cooley said, though he declined to share the owner’s name.
More than 25 years ago, the space opened as Festivals Foods. It’s been home to Sun Fresh for about five or six years, said Cooley.
In the years since, Anne McManus, who lives about three minutes from the Sun Fresh, said the grocery store has become an important pillar of the Northland community, often providing discounts to school groups and the local neighborhood association for fundraisers.
The grocery store also provides a place for neighbors to catch up between the aisles and brings residents of the Chaumiere neighborhood together, McManus said.
“It keeps the neighborhood alive,” she said.
Sun Fresh closed at 31st and Prospect Streets in August, despite millions of dollars of investment from the city to keep it running. Months leading up to the closure, residents watched as the store’s shelves grew increasingly bare.
But soon United Market KC, LLC will operate the East Side space when it reopens in the spring.
Several other grocery stores in the metro have closed in the past few months. Price Chopper closed locations at 7416 W. 119th St. and 7000 W. 75th St. in Overland Park.
The Merc Co+op closed its KCK spot at 501 Minnesota Ave. at the end of 2025.
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Jenna Thompson
The Kansas City Star
Jenna Thompson covers retail news for The Kansas City Star. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, she previously reported for the Lincoln Journal Star and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she studied journalism and English.
Jenna Ebbers
The Kansas City Star
Jenna Ebbers covers Clay and Platte counties in Kansas City’s Northland. Before joining The Star in January 2026, she reported on K-12 education and early childhood at the Lincoln Journal Star in Nebraska. She is a Nebraska native and a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
