Eerie photos reveal the barren scene inside an iconic grocery chain that closed stores and couldn't pay vendors

Shoshy Ciment/Business Insider

Dean & DeLuca at 560 Broadway resides in a building that is a designated landmark.

• Dean & DeLuca's Soho flagship store is eerily empty. Store employees say it's because of impending renovations.
• The luxury food-chain has closed multiple stores in the last few months and has recently failed to pay some of its vendors, The New York Times reported.
• We visited the store in Soho and saw a disturbing scene that matched the descriptions of other Dean & DeLuca locations before they shuttered.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Hope for Dean & DeLuca stores is rapidly dwindling.

The company closed two stores in July, one in California's Napa Valley and one on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Both locations were characterized by empty shelves for months, the New York Times reported. A Georgetown, DC location experienced the same apocalyptic symptoms before it finally shuttered earlier this month.

The company's website listed only four store locations as of Wednesday.

"Dean & DeLuca will focus on its flagship store located on Prince Street in New York City while it reassesses how to transform its business model to address challenges that are facing many brands in the sector," a representative for the company told the Washington Post last month.

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Issues for the grocery chain in the past have included a dwindling artisan inventory and a failure to pay its vendors and suppliers, The New York Times reported.

The flagship store in question resides at 560 Broadway in a building designated as a landmark in the Soho Cast-Iron Historic District, potentially complicating any construction or renovation to the property as it likely first must be approved by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Whether or not the store is slated for renovations, the luxury grocer is a shell of its former life as a celebrated hub for fine, artisanal groceries.

We visited the flagship on Wednesday and saw a troubling scene of empty refrigerators, shelves, and baskets. The vacant displays and counter space in the Soho store made it seem as though it was slated for a future similar to the other shuttered locations. Signs posted indicated that the appearance was due to renovations.

Dean & DeLuca did not return a request for comment.

With other Dean & DeLuca stores experiencing a similar fate, we wanted to see what was really happening in the Soho flagship.