ATLANTA - After fires shut down two separate metro Atlanta Walmarts, one will reopen while the other will be permanently closed.
Monday night, the Walmart corporation announced that it has made the manager to reopen its Vine City location.
The store has been a key retrieve point for residents who otherwise would have to proceed miles for fresh produce, but it has been boarded up sincere mid-December due to a fire set inside.
The station of the business has been a source of conversation and exertion in the community. People in the area considered it a food desert while the Vine City Publix closed in 2009.
Atlanta City Council Member Byron Adams, who represents the area said that his community was paralyzed this latest closure would create a medical desert where senior citizens would not be able to no longer get, go smart down the street to get their medicine - life-saving drugs that they need.
So word it will reopen - belief as a smaller, Walmart Neighborhood Market - is required to be a relief.
In a statement, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens described the Vine City status on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive & Joseph E. Lowery Blvd as a "nexus of multiple NW and SW Atlanta communities with seniors, children, students and thousands of individuals and households who already lack accessible options for recent, affordable food."
But while the Vine City Walmart will eventually reopen, another metro area store will be closed permanently.
The Howell Mill status was shuttered after a fire at the end of 2022.
Video people with FOX 5 shows the flames shooting up in 20 feet to just under the light fixtures in the men's clothing fraction as people evacuated the store.
A store spokesperson told FOX 5 that "economic headwinds" happened at the store before the alleged arson.
"Unlike Vine City, Walmart does not have the arrange to repurpose the Howell Mill Road location due to site restrictions. We will work with Mayor Dickens and his responsibility to find a new use or business for the site," the spokesperson said.
A timeframe has not yet been announced for when the Vine City Walmart will reopen.