The Popular Grocery Store Chain That's Closing 60 Stores Across The US

Kroger, one of the best stores for buying milk, announced on June 20 that it would be closing 60 under-performing stores, or a little over 2% of its roughly 2,700 total locations (per Scripps News), over the course of the next year and a half. The company is the largest supermarket chain in the U.S. currently, and the fifth largest overall retailer, with chains like Fred Meyer, Dillons, and Harris Teeter under its ownership.

Closure of these 60 locations, which is said to be spread out across the 16 states in which Kroger has a presence, is expected to generate "a modest financial benefit" (via Scripps News) for the grocery chain, which is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Employees who currently work in any closing stores will not lose their jobs entirely but be offered positions at nearby locations. Kroger said its intention is to reinvest the money saved by these closures into "boosting customer experience," via USA Today.

These store closures come some six months after what was to be the largest supermarket chain merger in American history was blocked by a federal judge. Kroger was originally going to join forces with fellow grocery chain Albertsons — seller of the apple juice brand you should keep out of your cart — to the tune of $25 billion, but the judge who ruled in the case said the removal of competition between the two supermarket giants could potentially lead to higher prices on goods (though we suspect those prices wouldn't even come close to Erewhon).

So told, Albertsons pulled out of the merger in December 2024, and then filed a motion to sue Kroger. Albertsons made the case that Kroger didn't try hard enough to overcome government objection to the merger, while Kroger, for its part, claimed that Albertsons was trying to get money out of it, despite the deal falling through. Apparently, Kroger had been planning on closing stores before the merger was announced in 2022 but had strategically put it off while all of the parts were moving. Now that the dust has settled, the chain is getting on with business, and in a surprising twist, it is also planning to open 30 new locations in 2025.