Two Memphis convenience stores have been shut down after city officials said years of shootings, drug seizures and at least one homicide turned them into magnets for crime. The City of Memphis and the Shelby County District Attorney's Office declared Community Grocery, also known as Castalia Market, at 1701 Castalia Street in South Memphis, and Save-A-Stop #2, at 2757 Kimball Avenue in the Bethel Grove area, public nuisances under Tennessee's nuisance-abatement law, issuing closure orders for both properties.
The numbers behind the Castalia Market closure are stark. According to WREG, Memphis police responded to 229 calls for service at the store between October 2024 and October 2026, which resulted in 71 reports and 24 arrests. Incident reports at the location included a homicide, an armed robbery, aggravated assaults, and multiple narcotics violations and firearm recoveries, the station reported.
A Killing Inside the Store and a Felon With a Gun
The most serious incident came on June 16, 2026, when a homicide occurred inside Castalia Market and officers recovered two stolen firearms during the investigation, per the same WREG account. Armed threats against patrons were also reported at the store in May 2026, and as recently as October 5, an aggravated assault involving an armed convicted felon occurred there, the station noted.
Police had already put the store's operators on notice. Responsible parties at Castalia Market received written notice under the nuisance-abatement law on April 29, 2026, but the station reported that criminal activity continued afterward. That pattern echoes an armed robbery documented by the Memphis Police Department, which said officers responded to the Castalia Street address at 1:10 p.m. on June 1, 2026, after three suspects approached a victim — one pointing a black handgun while another grabbed money from the victim's hands.
Drugs, Illegal Gambling Machines and Gunfire at Save-A-Stop 2
Across town in Bethel Grove, Save-A-Stop #2 drew its own closure order after what WREG described as repeated incidents involving violent crime, narcotics, illegal firearms and illegal gambling. A search warrant executed at the store turned up four illegal gambling machines along with cash tied to illegal activities, the outlet reported, while a felony narcotics investigation on July 25, 2026, led officers to seize cocaine, ecstasy, oxycodone, Xanax and marijuana. Separate narcotics investigations at the store also recovered illegal and deadly drugs along with a stolen firearm, according to the report.
Violence at the Kimball Avenue store stretched back well before this year. The station noted shootings there in January and May 2025, one of which left a woman critically injured, and in June 2025 two suspects were arrested while carrying firearms equipped with illegal machine-gun conversion devices. Responsible parties received written notice under the nuisance-abatement law on July 13, 2026, but the same report said criminal activity continued even after that warning — including an armed aggravated assault against an employee on October 3 and, on October 9, an officer-involved shooting after a fleeing suspect fired multiple shots at officers, with gunfire striking a nearby property.
City Says More Closures Could Follow
The Memphis Police Department said it will keep working with partners to address problem properties, hold responsible parties accountable and protect Memphis neighborhoods, per the WREG report. Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy has pointed to results elsewhere, telling LocalMemphis that closing high-crime businesses has quieted crime calls in Memphis neighborhoods. A separate report citing the Memphis Data Hub found that MPD had logged 367 reports within a quarter mile of Save-A-Stop 2 so far in 2023, according to Yahoo News.
These two closures fit a broader pattern of nuisance-abatement action across the city. The Memphis Police Department previously moved to close Legends Lounge on Knight Arnold Road after documenting 58 incidents since March 2023, including six aggravated assaults involving gunfire and one homicide, with written notice served in April 2026 and another assault reported there in July. MPD also declared the Budget Host Inn & Suites near the airport a public nuisance after logging 792 calls over two years that produced 166 reports and 71 arrests, according to WREG. LocalMemphis has also reported closures at EZ Express in Frayser, Snappy Mart in Midtown and Gas Express on Lamar Avenue, noting that the Lamar Avenue store reopened just eleven days after its shutdown.
