Kroger, the parent company of California-based grocers Ralphs and Food 4 Less, plans to close 60 stores over the next 18 months.<\/p>\n
The company announced the upcoming closures in an earnings report<\/a> for last quarter, but did not specify which locations or brands would be shuttered. Kroger also owns Harris Teeter, King Soopers and other U.S. grocery chains. <\/p>\n The closures represent a $100-million loss for the company but will lead to a \u201cmodest financial benefit,\u201d the company said. Employees working at the affected stores will be offered positions at other locations. <\/p>\n A spokesperson for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n There are 182 Ralphs locations and 90 Food 4 Less locations across California, according to the chains\u2019 websites. Both chains are headquartered in Compton.<\/p>\n The planned closures come amid a period of turmoil<\/a> for Kroger, which is valued at $48 billion and has seen an 18% jump in share prices this year. The company\u2019s former chairman and chief executive, Rodney McMullen, abruptly stepped down in March following a probe into his personal conduct. <\/p>\n Kroger was also involved in a failed $25-billion merger<\/a> with grocery giant Albertson\u2019s. The deal was blocked by a federal judge late last year. Earlier this month, about 45,000 employees at Kroger and Albertsons authorized a strike<\/a> to protest what they call unfair labor practices. They have not yet walked off the job. <\/p>\n Kroger reported net earnings of $866 million for the first quarter of 2025, down from $947 million during the same period last year. Total company sales were $45.1 billion for the quarter, compared to $45.3 billion last year.<\/p>\n Kroger shares fell 1% Tuesday to close at $73.42. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kroger, the parent company of California-based grocers Ralphs and Food 4 Less, plans to close 60 stores over…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,13942,13945,638,13941,990,13943,13946,583,13940,13944,13938,9105,13937,4700,67,132,13939,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-13188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-chain","10":"tag-chief-executive","11":"tag-company","12":"tag-employee","13":"tag-food","14":"tag-former-chairman","15":"tag-king-soopers","16":"tag-kroger","17":"tag-last-year","18":"tag-less-location","19":"tag-location","20":"tag-month","21":"tag-ralphs","22":"tag-store","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-upcoming-closure","26":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114743397818953754","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}