NORFOLK, Va. – After it was not supposed to close, one of the oldest Krogers in Hampton Roads will be closing.
Kroger Mid-Atlantic announced on Thursday that is will close the Wards Corner Norfolk location on Little Creek Road in mid-December due to declining sales.
“The decision to close a store is one that we take very seriously as we know that many people are impacted by the closing. This store’s low financial returns made it impossible to continue to operate while still upholding our low-price commitment to our customers,” said Jerry Clontz, president of Kroger’s Mid-Atlantic Division. “We’re so thankful for our associates and we are working with them to identify positions at nearby stores in Hampton Roads. Our number one priority at this time is helping our associates through this transition,” said Clontz.
The Kroger location employs 102 associates and has been open since 2000 when It was purchased by Kroger as part of the Hannaford Bros. acquisition that same year.
Kroger decided that it has no plans to reopen the Farm Fresh store also located on Little Creek Road. This is one of eight stores that was purchased by Kroger Mid-Atlantic earlier in 2018, according to the media release by the company. This goes against what Kroger said would happen when it first purchased the Farm Fresh store on Little Creek Road – when employees demanded answers after the store acquisitions.
Farm Fresh closed 21 of its 38 local Farm Fresh Food & Pharmacy stores back in April, part of three separate agreements. One of which included Kroger. The other two were with Harris Teeter and Food Lion.
Kroger was planning on taking down its location on Little Creek Road, to renovate and build a new Kroger on the newly purchased Farm Fresh property just across the street.
The lease for the Little Creek store will expire in May of 2019.
“We’re thankful for our loyal customers and we hope to see them at our nearby Hampton Roads stores,” added Clontz.
Kroger said the closing will not impact the charitable contributions to the Hampton Roads community, including donations and gifts towards hunger relief as part of the company’s Zero Hunger l Zero Waste initiative.
