Omaha Steaks will shut down its West Hartford location

Don Stacom, Hartford Courant
·2 min read
Omaha Steaks will shut down its West Hartford location

Omaha Steaks is closing its West Hartford store next month.

The Nebraska-based retailer of steaks, seafood, chicken and various gift foods plans to shut down the West Hartford center location on Feb. 14.

The closing will leave it with only one retail location in Connecticut, its store at the Promenade Shops at Evergreen Walk in South Windsor.

Staff at the West Hartford location on Monday said they were not authorized to talk with the press, and Omaha Steaks’ corporate media office did not return a phone call.

Omaha Steaks will be shutting down just shy of completing its fifth year at the South Main Street storefront.

When it launched that store in March 2016, senior vice president and family owner Todd Simon said in announcement “With the success of our store in South Windsor, it only made sense to open another in Connecticut.”

But Omaha Steaks, which which does most of its business through online and mail order, has been retrenching its store fleet in recent years. In 2017 it had about 70 locations in 26 states, but is currently down to 51 in 19 states.

The West Hartford store notified customers last week ago that it would be closing. It is just concluding a storewide 50% discount sale, but an employee said that wasn’t related to the closure.

The company started in Omaha, Neb., in 1917 as a traditional butcher. It expanded through heavy use of mail order marketing, and didn’t open its first retail outlet outside Nebraska until the 1980s.

Its mail order business ships frozen steak, chicken, veal and other foods in Styrofoam-like coolers with dry ice, and the company reports that it employs as many as 6,000 workers during peak holiday periods. It ships more than 4 million coolers a year.

The West Hartford store usually employed about a half-dozen workers, but currently has just three.

Like many retail businesses, it has seen foot traffic drop off during the pandemic. Early Monday afternoon, just two shoppers were in the South Main Street store along with two employees.