WILLITS, CA., 8/11/26 — The Grocery Outlet in Willits is set to reopen Wednesday morning, more than a month after an earthquake caused the store to close due to damage to the warehouse.
On June 24 at 8:10 a.m., a 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck six miles north of Redwood Valley according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The earthquake caused a power outage in the northern portion of Mendocino County, including in Willits where multiple shops had to close temporarily, not only from the power outage but also from inventory loss or other damage.
David and Karin McKinney have owned the Grocery Outlet in the Evergreen Village shopping center on the south end of Willits for six years. David said the warehouse sustained damage to a wall and its roof in the earthquake.
“The beams rocked back and forth and whittled away the cinder block, so that cinder block was compromised,” said David, adding that it caused the roof to drop down and the wall to push back. “Until that roof was removed and the wall sprung back, we could not shore up those beams to occupy the building.”
Without a structurally sound warehouse, operations had to stop temporarily.
“[The warehouse is] an enormous part of our operation,” David said. “The flow of product and the storage, how we receive. It’s a big operation. We receive trucks every day, so we move a lot of product through the store.”
Karin said the warehouse is being repaired but in the meantime a part of the building that isn’t normally used is now the temporary warehouse after some changes were made to the space.
“The wall bounced back to where it should be. The roof is being replaced as we speak,” said Karin. “The area is still unusable as they tidy up construction, but … we are able to use an unoccupied space as a temporary warehouse so that we can get things back up and running.”
After the earthquake caused the McKinneys to temporarily close the store, they donated $60,000 worth of nonperishable items to the Willits Food Bank, according to David. He said five tons of produce was given to a local farming couple with livestock who have been taking on the store’s damaged produce or green waste for “a long time now.” He also said they gave $10,000 worth of dry foods like breads, candies, crackers and cookies to Willits Daily Bread.
The donation to the Willits Food Bank was too big for the scale of the food bank’s operation, so they connected with the Mendo Food Network, which distributes food throughout the county.
Karin said donating the food for the community was an upside of the situation that left a town without its discount grocery store.
“Our community relies on the groceries that we have at a reasonable cost to where they weren’t able to go shop at the other stores locally because of their budgets,” Karin said. “Us being able to help the food bank with some food for them to hand out to the community definitely was that silver lining there.”
The McKinneys said they are having a grand re-opening of the Grocery Outlet at 8 a.m. Wednesday. The store is at 1718 S Main St in Willits.
I can tell you that the people of Willis and surrounding area are ecstatic that you’re reopening. We have missed you all so much! I do quite a bit of my shopping there and we go at least 3 to 5 times a week. I miss the friends that I have working there and the others that they have working that I consider a friend to when I see them on the street. Such a wonderful group of people and the managers found wonderful ways to try to take care of their people. Thank you. Glad to see you back home again.
I miss the Willits Grocery Outlet, the owners in Lakeport are so rude.
I am so elated that Grocery Outlet is coming back. You are the best addition to Willits in decades! Let me speak for all of Willits, welcome back!! We love you!