Major supermarket and grocery chains are closing underperforming locations, stores that no longer make sense to operate, and shops that they can’t sell.
Chains like Kroger, Stop & Shop, The Raley’s Companies, and IGA have been downsizing since 2025 and the process will continue through 2027.
Kroger said it expected to close approximately 60 stores across its portfolio by the end of 2026, according to the company’s first-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings call. Giant Ahold Delhaize’s Stop & Shop chain confirmed in July that it will close store locations in Basking Ridge and Westfield, N.J., also in 2026.
Raley’s launched a regional downsizing plan that called for seven store closings in California and Nevada in 2026 and 2027. Raley’s said it will offer transfer opportunities to as many affected employees as possible, KSRO radio reported.
The Raley’s Companies cited local market conditions and long-term financial sustainability for the downsizing.
Grocery chain closes stores
And now independent grocery chain IGA, which is the largest affiliation of independent grocers in the U.S., is closing five stores in four states for various reasons.
Chicago-based Independent Grocers Alliance‘s stores in Latta, S.C., and Eastport, Maine, revealed that they will close at the end of September after a store in Conway, S.C., closed in early September and another location in Potsdam, N.Y. closed on Aug. 31, 2026.
IGA store becomes Lucky Market
IGA grocery store Ross’ Granville Market in Granville, Ohio, which opened in 1978, closed on May 7, 2026, after being sold to Lucky’s Markets Ohio owners, the Saltzman family. The store transitioned to Lucky’s Market Granville on May 22, 2026, with all IGA workers offered employment at the new store, according to The Reporting Project.
Workers at Potsdam IGA were not as fortunate as the Granville workers, as the store’s 14 employees lost their jobs when the store closed at the end of August, according to WWNY-TV.
Potsdam IGA was owned by Todd LaVigne and Kirk LaVigne, who also own IGA stores in Brasher Falls and Chateaugay, N.Y., which remain open. The owners announced the Potsdam closing on social media but did not state a reason the closure.
IGA’s corporate office in mid-July said that its Conway IGA store, which operated since the 1960s, would close in early September. The company did not give a specific reason for closing the store, but the closure was a “difficult business decision,” an IGA Corporate spokesperson said, according to WBTW-TV.
Conway IGA employees would be offered positions at KJ’s Markets or IGA stores, the spokesperson said.
Store not generating enough sales
Latta IGA, which has been located on South Richardson Street in Latta, S.C., for almost 100 years and is the only grocery store in town, will close its store at the end of September because it was not generating enough sales, according to WFXB-TV. No arrangements for employees were mentioned.
With the closing of Latta IGA, the closest grocery store to the town’s residents will be seven miles away in Dillon, S.C.
R&M IGA in Eastport, Maine, which closes at the end of September, is also the only grocery store in town, but the next closest grocery store is an hour away from town, according to WGME-TV.
Owner closes store to retire
R&M IGA is closing because the owner is retiring and has been unable to find a buyer to take over the business. The number of employees affected was not reported.
Independent Grocers Alliance, which was founded in 1926, isn’t a conventional supermarket chain. Its affiliates are independently owned. IGA is affiliated with over 2,600 independently owned grocery stores in the U.S. and 7,500 stores globally.
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