By Darrell Kirby | [email protected]

The surrounding landscape has changed significantly over the years with the remaking of Valley Fair Mall and the addition of In-N-Out Burger and Costco. Even the businesses directly next to it have changed multiple times. 

But Davis Food and Drug was a mainstay through it all. 

That is, until August when the small, family-owned grocery store closed for good after decades serving residents in central West Valley City. 

Davis Food and Drug, also known as Davis Jubilee before that, quietly shut its doors following a brief sale period to clear out its merchandise. 

“It really has been in economic decline over the past several years and from a business standpoint probably should have been closed at least four to six years ago,” said CJ Davis, son of owners Jim and Debbie Davis. “We really only kept it open because many of our employees have been with us since the very beginning. We lost a lot of money doing this, but we felt like we owed it to them.”  

The Davis’s, who continue to run their other namesake markets in Vernal, Roosevelt, and La Verkin, took over the lease for the West Valley location on Sept. 25, 1999, which was Debbie’s birthday. “Dad joked it was her ‘birthday present,’” CJ said.   

The demise of Davis Food and Drug in West Valley City is somewhat of an anomaly among small, independent grocers in Utah, according to Dave Davis (no relation to the store owners), president of the Utah Food Industry Association, which represents the interests of 600 grocery and convenience stores, wholesalers, suppliers, and manufacturers. “Utah compared to other states has a really robust independent grocery community.” 

But Davis admits it’s tougher for stores like Davis Food and Drug to thrive in the ultra-competitive urban areas of Utah, where big chains like Walmart and Kroger’s Smith’s Food and Drug dominate. Local family-run grocers usually find their success in smaller markets. “They’ve done an exceptional job in rural Utah” and in other underserved communities, Davis said. “Oftentimes, that store is a community gathering place.” 

Still, he laments the loss of a store like Davis Food and Drug from the middle of the state’s second-largest city after some 40 years in business. “It made me exceptionally sad when the retailer has been a fixture of the community for a long period of time.” 

CJ Davis says the fate of the building vacated by his family’s store is up in the air. “It may sit vacant for a while until the owners decide what to do with it. We were just the leaseholders and the term was coming up and it fiscally didn't make sense for either party to continue.”