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Sickles Market closed its grocery store in Little Silver in early March. The store had been open on Harrison Avenue since 1908.
The market's website had a statement explaining the sudden closure.
"It is with heaviest hearts that we have closed the doors on our 116-year-old business at this time," the statement said. "We have been so lucky to have all of you by our side on this long journey, from friends near and far, to our incredible team members, and to the customers who have been shopping with us since the early garage door days. The outpouring of support has been incredible."
The statement came about a month after Sickles closed its other location in Red Bank on Thursday, Feb. 15.
"To say we are heartbroken does not quite cover it," Sickles said in an earlier social media post announcing the Red Bank closing. "We opened our operations in Red Bank in August 2020 and four years later, the repercussions of the pandemic never allowed us to fully turn this location into what we had dreamed."
According to court documents, Sickles was facing at least two lawsuits in Monmouth County Superior Court as of Friday, Mar. 29. The suits accused the market of failing to pay off its debts.
Metrovation, the owners of the Red Bank building that housed Sickles, claimed the market owed at least $324,366.12 in rent and late fees. The Anderson Building's landlord filed the suit on Friday, Mar. 1.
Metrovation had also attempted to evict Sickles from the building for not keeping up with payments.
"Despite abandoning the property and not paying rent, [Sickles Market Provisions] is currently collecting rent from a sub-tenant," the Metrovation suit said.
The market said the beer store Bottles by Sickles would remain open in the Anderson Building.
Holiday Meats of New Jersey also filed a suit against Sickles on Monday, Mar. 18. The Little Silver company claimed Sickles owed the wholesale distributor at least $116,845.49 for meat delivered to the market's two grocery stores.
The history page of the store's website said Harold and Elsie Sickles began running the market on farmland that became home of the modern-day location. Harold's son Bob Sickles Sr. joined his parents in 1945 and current owner Bob Sickles Jr. joined in 1978.
Despite the legal battles, Sickles said it hopes to reopen.
"Whatever the future holds, we hope you remember "The Good Stuff" and that we have done our very best to deliver for over a century," the market said in the closing announcement on its website. "Hopefully we can come back, until then we thank you – for giving us the type of customer love and loyalty a family-owed business work [sic] their whole lives for."
The Sickles family began running the store year-round in 1999 after winterizing the market and building a modern greenhouse.
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