Canton Pizza Ranch closes, Sunshine expands

CANTON, S.D. (KELO) – The Pizza Ranch in Canton has closed its doors due to financial difficulties and a neighboring business expanding.

Kim Cerwick, owner of the Canton Pizza Ranch, said the restaurant closed because they struggled to make money over the last few years.

“Everything kind of changed after COVID, people’s habits changed and with the economy decreasing and inflation increasing, you know, a community of 3,000 just wasn’t able to sustain it,” Cerwick said.

She added, “A buffet in a small town is real tough because we have a lot of food waste due to that kind of service.”

The restaurant had at least 15 employees, according to Cerwick. She said she wanted to ensure everyone had new employment before closing the doors. That process happened faster than Cerwick anticipated, so she decided to close the store earlier than planned.

“I had said that we were gonna close May 31st but we ended up running out of employees by the end of April, so that’s why we closed a month earlier,” Cerwick said.

Pizza Ranch still had four years left of their lease when Sunshine Foods next door bought them out of their lease, along with purchasing the former Sanford Health Equip location.

Darin Hill, the owner of Canton’s Sunshine, said the grocery store, along with Lewis Drug, will be expanding into the other two units.

“Lewis Drug is getting a drive-up window and we’re gonna be able to expand our offerings in the grocery store,” Hill said.

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