PROVO — There is no more beer at Food 4 Less.
The warehouse grocer has also run out of oranges, carrots and string cheese.
And on the cereal aisle, only two boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios remain.
Blame it on someone like Pat Bryant, who hurried to Provo's Food 4 Less Wednesday when she heard the store was closing and stuffed her cart so full she had to stop several times to pick up items that had fallen out.
"My husband just called me and told me to get a second cart, to buy as much as I could," Bryant said. "I don't know if I can fit everything in my car."
Three Utah Food 4 Less stores — in Provo, Kearns and Spanish Fork — will close by June 14, company officials say. Last year Fleming Companies Inc., which owns 29 Food 4 Less grocery stores in four states, announced it would either sell or close all of its retail stores.
At the Provo Food 4 Less, prices have been reduced by 60 percent, and on Thursday it seemed everyone there was on a shopping spree.
A man in a cowboy hat strolled slowly through the store, pushing a cart crammed full of orange detergent bottles. A few feet away, two teenage girls struggled to push four shopping carts through the check-out line.
"A lot of this stuff, we would never buy if it wasn't on sale," said David Fawcett. His cart was full of frozen pizza, popcorn tubs and dozens of Kool-Aid packets.
Once everything sells in the three Utah stores, they will close, leaving about 100 people unemployed. A few years ago, the three stores employed around 330 people.
A Fleming spokesperson did not return Deseret News phone calls, but a store manager, who asked not to be named, said business had been dropping off for years.
That surprised Leila Kramer, who was shopping at the store Tuesday. Kramer said she and her husband have shopped at discount stores like Food 4 Less and Storehouse Market— which closed in Provo a few years ago — since their college days.
"I guess there aren't many people left who don't care about a sleek look," Kramer said. "I guess college students are more upscale now."
Not all college students. Mike Hazlett and Collin Walker stuffed their cart to the brim Wednesday afternoon with grape soda and diet supplement drinks.
"It's weird that a grocery store would go out of business," Hazlett said. "Everybody needs to eat."
E-mail: jhyde@desnews.com