A number of grocery chains including Walmart , Kroger , Sprouts, Amazon and Stop & Shop have announced the closure of several US-based locations throughout 2023. Following the impact of inflation on customer spending together with the increase in online shopping and grocery delivery services, retailers have been struggling to activate in certain locations, with grocery chains announcing the closure of underperforming stores in the US.

Details on the US-based locations’ closure Based on the article information detailed by Best Life, Dayton Daily News announced that two Kroger stores located in Ohio Pinewood Plaza Shopping Centre and Spinning Road Plaza are set to close on 9 March. Despite the closure of these two locations, Kroger is set to open on 10 March a larger store to replace them, located between the closing stores, at a former Kmart site, details the announcement. Starting with February 2023, Walmart made public several impending store closures which include two in Illinois, two stores in Portland, Oregon, one in New Mexico, and a separate one in Florida, all of which are set to close in March of 2023.

Furthermore, the retailer confirmed to Best Life that a separate Walmart location at 99 H St. NW, Washington is set to be closed for good on 31 March, whereas its pharmacy at the same address will shut down on 17 March. What is more, Sprouts Farmers Market announced the closure of 11 stores, 10 of which are to be closed by Q2 2023, whereas one has already been closed as part of a real estate portfolio review.

Based on a statement from Chip Molloy, chief financial officer for Sprouts quoted by Best Life, on average, the closing stores are approximately 30% larger than the company’s current prototype and are also underperforming from a financial standpoint. A Winsight Grocery News article details that Sprouts had considered closing these stores in 2020 but decided not to in the face of the pandemic, so as to provide the communities with access to groceries. Based on a statement from Jack Sinclair, CEO of Sprouts, the closing stores are in parts of Texas, California, Georgia, Florida, and Washington, and no direct replacements are set to come in said geographies in the near future.

Dan Sanders, chief store operations officer for Sprouts added that the grocery store’s current focus is that of opening ‘smaller format stores’ and working towards retaining employees, with the enterprise set to also open 30 new stores throughout 2023. Regional grocery chain Stop & Shop has also made public the closure of stores, with one in Highland Park, New Jersey set to shut down on 23 March, following a business performance review under which it was identified as underperforming when talking about financial expectations. The grocery chain is also set to close a separate store in Brockton, Massachusetts which did not meet these expectations, but this is planned to happen in late summer 2023, as per a spokesperson statement quoted by Best Life.

Another retailer that has made public its plans for store closures is Amazon, which is planning on shutting down eight Amazon Go locations as of 1 April 2023: two convenience stores in Seattle, two in New York City, and another four in San Francisco. As detailed in the Best Life article, Amazon representatives advised that they assess their portfolio of stores periodically to make optimisation decisions, following which the closure of the stores was agreed upon. The company remains committed to the Amazon Go format, as they operate over 20 stores throughout the US, and is set to keep on gaining knowledge of which locations and features resonate with customers to continue ‘evolving’ their Amazon Go stores.

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