After Halloween, it’s hard to tell whether favorite little establishments closing is a trick or just reality.

Nov. 1, the beloved doughnut shop Peace, Love and Little Donuts on South College Avenue closed — meaning one less groovy business on the street.

Peace, Love and Little Donuts, a popular doughnut chain founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, glazed its way into Fort Collins in 2017. After five years in business, the Fort Collins location closed, leaving Loveland as the only location in Colorado.

According to KUAD-FM Radio, Peace, Love and Little Donuts sent out an email announcing its closure and thanking customers for their support. 

“We are sad to announce our Fort Collins Peace, Love and Little Donuts location will be closing for good after normal business hours on October 31,” the email read. “Thank you for your faithful support over the past five years. It has been a true pleasure serving you all.”

“Our main thing is that we just never really financially recovered from COVID, so the store just suffered terribly,” said Abbie Nemes, manager of the shop. 

“In my interview for this job, I said that I would like a long-term job that I could stay at for a good amount of time, and I was under the impression that that’s the position that I was getting, so it was a surprise for sure.” -Lucia Manier; Peace, Love and Little Donuts staff member

While business wasn’t booming, the employees themselves weren’t given much notice of the shop’s closure.

“I feel like the owner has known about the shop being in trouble for a while, and I feel like it would’ve been something nice to know before we all got hired back on,” Nemes said. 

Staff said the announcement of the closure came as a shock and disappointment.

“It affected our staff a lot, especially because we were given a week-and-a-half notice when the store was going to shut down,” Nemes said. “So a lot of people haven’t been able to find jobs, and nobody’s being transferred over to the store in Loveland.”

“In my interview for this job, I said that I would like a long-term job that I could stay at for a good amount of time, and I was under the impression that that’s the position that I was getting, so it was a surprise for sure,” Peace, Love and Little Donuts staff member Lucia Manier said. 

Manier, like several other employees, isn’t prepared for what to do following the closure of the shop.

“A couple of our workers are in high school, so it’s harder for them to find other jobs,” Manier said.

Manier acknowledged the impact of the closure on the community in addition to displaced employees.

“A lot of people are upset — I didn’t realize that we would have that many regulars for a doughnut shop,” Manier said. “A lot of people, especially students, come in here, and it’s a bummer for a lot of them because it’s a nice little spot.” 

The Loveland location of Peace, Love and Little Donuts has been open since 2019 and will continue normal operations.

“I hope that our shop made good impact on Old Town,” Nemes said. “I feel like a lot of people really did love this store, even though we didn’t really get the best business over the last year.”