By Max Bowen
max.bowen@northstarreporter.com
A longtime staple in North Attleborough has shuttered its doors.
Freihofer’s, a bakery outlet store located at 453 E. Washington St., closed on March 25, according to a spokesperson for the company.
“We made the difficult decision to permanently close the North Attleborough outlet store on March 25, 2024,” stated the spokesperson in an e-mail. “We appreciate all of our associates who worked at the North Attleborough store and are taking steps to help ease them through this transition.”
News of the closure was met with sadness and anger from the community, with many decrying the closure and saying how the store had been an important part of their food shopping. As an outlet, the bread, bagels, English muffins and baked goods were sold for a fraction of the price of grocery stores. Bread was often $1 a loaf, for example and could sell for $4 or $5 at other stores.
One former employee, who asked their name not be used, said they and the rest of the staff opened the store on March 25 at 9 a.m., only to be told by a regional manager an hour and a half later that they had to close those doors and go home. As they left, a few customers had to be turned away.
“We were all shocked,” said the former employee. “No warning, no notice, no nothing.”
This person went on to say that they had been with Freihofer’s for many years, as had their co-workers, with one of the staff only recently hired. They speculated that the reason for the lack of any advance notice was because recent Freihofer’s closures in Wilbraham and East Providence had been met with a great deal of negative feedback.
“For us, they came in and shut us all down,” this person said.
The North Attleborough location was a busy one, this person said, with many regular customers. Oftentimes, the store would be sold out of certain kinds of breads or bagels by noon.
“Whatever they gave us, we sold,” they said.
