The Jimmy John’s at 3849 S. Carson St. closed its doors Saturday, owner Dana Yzurdiaga said Monday. The north store at 2329 N. Carson St. will remain open.
Photo by Jessica Garcia.

Regular visitors to the Jimmy John’s store at 3849 S. Carson St. were surprised Monday to find the doors closed and a sign thanking them for 12 years of business. But owner Dana Yzurdiaga was at the door encouraging them to visit a second store she and her husband, Ken, have operated at 2329 N. Carson St. since 2014.

The north store will continue to offer everything Jimmy John’s is known for, Yzurdiaga said Monday as customers continued to come through the door. She hoped the closure would not deter guests.

“Denny’s is a beautiful store,” she said. “We’re hoping we can get some of our customers from here to be patient and go there and not raise their hands and go to the other restaurants (in the area).”

The transition of employees who had worked at the southern store was straightforward, she said, with only minor management changes to oversee operations at the chain’s Carson City and Reno stores.

“We took our assistant manager here (in South Carson) and moved her (to North Carson), and then we had a manager there (in North Carson) who we promoted to area manager, so she’s going to work here and go to our stores in Reno,” Yzurdiaga said. “And the girl who ran this store for years, a beautiful, lovely, hardworking woman, is going to be our marketing director.”

The franchisee couple has been able to find jobs for all of their employees; some of them have stayed at Jimmy John’s since high school, she said.

“We didn’t just give up everything,” she said. “We tried to work with what we had. We can’t just close this down. We found a place for everyone, for the people who were with us, for the people who found a home here. For my manager, this was her first job out of high school. She got married and had two children. We’re very proud of that.”

The South Carson store, which celebrated its grand opening in August 2013 in the Eagle Station Shopping Center, was a central location for guests and a quick stop thanks to the drive-thru option. But ultimately, Yzurdiaga said, “in a city the size of Carson, there’s probably just not enough room for two Jimmy John’s.”

The Yzurdiagas paid their employees competitive wages and their health insurance benefits would be retained, she said.

“It’s just the sheer number (of restaurants) in the area,” she said. “We stayed as long as we could. It was always tough.”