CHICAGO — Sisters Gabby and Elise Brulotte saw their product on the shelves of a Chicago Foxtrot location for the first time Sunday.
The Brulottes own Hot Take Dough, selling and packaging organic cookie dough that is made to be frozen for impromptu cravings when one or two cookies will do the trick.
Two days later, on a flight back home to Austin, Texas, they saw headlines on social media that Foxtrot was closed for good.
“I got a text from my sister, and she said, ‘I think something’s going on,’” Gabby Brulotte said. “I thought the articles were just clickbait.”
Foxtrot and Dom’s Kitchen and Market closed all their stores Tuesday, totaling 35 locations across various U.S. cities. The abrupt shutdown prompted a class-action lawsuit accusing the companies — which merged in November — of firing hundreds of employees without state-mandated layoff notices.
Now the Brulotte sisters, like other vendors, are waiting to find out what’s next. Some business owners told Block Club they still have unpaid invoices with the company and product left sitting on Foxtrot shelves. In some cases, owners are also faced with losing one of their biggest accounts.
“We haven’t gotten an update from them about inventory or next steps as brands, which is pretty crazy,” Gabby Brulotte said.
Foxtrot’s parent company, Outfox Hospitality, did not address the outstanding invoices and leftover products in the announcements to vendors that the stores were closing, business owners said.
“We have several thousand dollars in unpaid invoices that are left hanging in the wind,” said Amie Kesler, founder and CEO of Chicago-based Carolyn’s Krisps. “As you can imagine for a smaller brand, the amount unpaid significantly impacts cash flow.”
‘It Really Caught Us Off Guard’
Kesler was on her way to hand out free samples Tuesday at the River North Foxtrot, 114 W. Chicago Ave., when she saw it was closed, she said.
Carolyn’s Krisps, which started in Chicago in 2021, sells vegan and gluten-free cookie crackers.
In the Chicago area, Foxtrot represented about 65 percent of Carolyn’s Krisps retail footprint, Kelser said. Losing that footprint could impact the company’s yearly revenue in the “tens of thousands” for 2024, she said.
Being initiated into the Foxtrot family felt like a badge of honor in the specialty product space, Kelser said. Now she’s left wondering what will happen to her products left on those shelves and the money she’s owed.
“Many vendors, us included, have a significant amount of unpaid invoices by Foxtrot and Dom’s that we will most likely never see the money for,” Kesler said. “Not to mention all the unsold products on shelves that — as of now — we have absolutely no way to recoup.”
Simone Freeman, co-founder of Chicago-based Freeman House Chai, said the closures “puts our business at serious risk” of failing.
“This closure hurts both from the perspective that Foxtrot was instrumental to our growth as one of our biggest accounts, but also because of the number of open invoices,” Freeman said in an email. “As local employer, we empathize deeply for the employees and other small business who were dependent on Foxtrot.”
The Brulotte sisters partnered with Foxtrot last summer. Up until this week, the relationship between the companies was wonderful, Gabby Brulotte said.
“Every contact we had with them was awesome,” Gabby Brulotte said. “They were encouraging us about growth and even talked about trying to get us into more stores because we were doing really well with them. I think if they gave any kind of notice it wouldn’t have been as shocking, but because it happened so quickly, it really caught us off guard.”
Foxtrot’s 33 stores and Dom’s two locations closed nearly five months after the two upscale grocery businesses announced a blockbuster merger. Some customers turned out to stores and were greeted by handwritten signs saying the locations were closed, while employees told reporters they received little notice of the layoffs.
Foxtrot was founded in Chicago, opening its first store in 2015 in Fulton Market. The company’s co-founder, Mike LaVitola, conceived of the business plan when he was a student at University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
In 2020, LaVitola told Chicago Magazine that Foxtrot was meant to be an online delivery service that delivered high-quality versions of what people would typically find at a convenience store.
Since Illinois law made it difficult to deliver liquor from a warehouse instead of a retail establishment, LaVitola opened a single small retail location to facilitate orders.
In 2022, the company raised $100 million in funding to expand further in Chicago. It expanded to Dallas, Austin and Washington, D.C., after further funding rounds. The company was also working to expand locally and had at least one failed bid to open in Andersonville after fierce pushback from small business owners in the Far North Side neighborhood.
The closings prompted an outpouring of support for local businesses and companies.
Online sales for Carolyn’s Krisps have been better than usual, and Kelser credits Chicagoans for the unexpected bump.
“At the end of the day, I built a brand on community, and they’re really showing up for us,” Kesler said. “Chicago to me has always seemed like a big ‘small’ city. It’s a huge city, but people know each other. The support we’ve received shows that we’re not going to let our people fall and I believe Chicago is here for that.”
The co-founders of the Center of Order and Experimentation, Julie Purpura and Jean Cate, said they’ve been overwhelmed by the support they’ve received through social media.
The Center of Order and Experimentation opened in 2022 at 1727 W. Grand Ave. and has a little bit of everything. It’s a retail store that sells home goods from local artisans, a cafe that sells coffee and pastries and a painting and design studio that houses Cate’s and Purpura’s other businesses: Avenir Creative and Martha Mae.
“I think it was really beautiful and wonderful to see the outpouring of support both for local makers that were affected and for local retail businesses like ours,” Cate said. “I’m always in awe of people being so supportive and shouting out other businesses that are supporting local makers and independent brands.”
Jordan Tepper, co-founder of Illinois-based craft distillery Apologue Liqueurs, said Foxtrot will be missed by brands and consumers.
“What Foxtrot — and particularly Dylan Melvin, [director of adult beverages,] did — to build their curated beer, wine, spirits and alcohol-alternative program was transformative for emerging craft beverage brands,” Tepper said in an email. “I’m certainly bummed about how everything went down, but I’m also super appreciative that we had the opportunity to work with Foxtrot to help launch our products and introduce them to so many consumers.”
As a business owner and vendor for Foxtrot, Gabby Brulotte said she feels for the employees who are now without a job.
As a customer, Brulotte is going to miss those sour gummy bags.
“It’s so basic of me, but I love the gummy bags,” she said. “I bought a pack when I was in Chicago, and now that’s my last one. I’m going to savor them.”
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