THE FRIDAY 5: Albertsons, Kroger Face Layoffs and Restructuring; ALDI and Southeastern Grocers Make a Deal
Welcome to The Friday 5, Progressive Grocer’s weekly roundup of the top news and trends in the food retail industry. Each Friday, we’ll take a look at the stories that are most important to our readers and also keep tabs on the trends that are poised to impact grocers.
1. Kroger-Owned Mariano’s Prepares to Close in Chicagoland
Readers were most interested this week in news that a busy Mariano's location in Northfield, Ill., is slated for closure later this year. Village officials confirmed that the Kroger Co.-owned banner is not renewing the lease on that nearly 48,000-square-foot store in the suburb north of Chicago.
The Mariano’s location opened in 2014, under then-owner Roundy’s. The Mariano’s Fresh Market banner was named for Roundy’s CEO Bob Mariano, a grocery leader also known for serving as president and CEO of Dominick’s and later, as a co-founder of the now-defunct Dom’s Kitchen & Market.
The closing of the Mariano’s in Northfield comes on the heels of the collapsed merger between Kroger and Albertsons Cos. As part of the original deal, more than 30 Mariano’s stores in the Chicago area were to be spun off to C&S Wholesale Grocers.
2. ALDI, C&S and Southeastern Grocers Make a Deal
News broke this week that a consortium of private investors, led by current Southeastern Grocers CEO and President Anthony Hucker, and C&S Wholesale Grocers, acquired Southeastern Grocers and its Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket banners from ALDI U.S.
The agreement includes the acquisition of Southeastern Grocers grocery and liquor store operations under the Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket banners, which comprises about 170 grocery stores across Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, in addition to the existing Winn-Dixie liquor store business. ALDI plans to complete its previously revealed conversion plans, with around 220 Winn-Dixie and Harveys stores to be converted to the ALDI format over a multiyear process that began in March 2024, and is expected to wrap up in 2027.
“We are profoundly grateful and deeply honored to continue serving the communities we cherish,” said Hucker. “Our culture and path forward are firmly grounded in our 100-year legacy — a legacy built on strong values and a shared purpose of caring for one another. Throughout this transformational journey, our commitment to thoughtful, purpose-driven growth remains strong and propels us forward with renewed momentum. As we reinvest in the store fleet, we are inspired by listening loudly to the voices of our customers, to elevate and revolutionize our customer experience and store offerings, so that each step we take will reflect our dedication to our people and our communities.”
With that deal in place, ALDI revealed that it is on pace to open more than 225 stores in 2025, the most stores to be unveiled in one year during its nearly 50-year history. Those 2025 openings include about 100 conversions of remaining Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets stores as well as other new ALDI stores, many of them in the Western region of the United States.
3. Albertsons, Kroger Face Layoffs and Restructuring
Both The Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos. are facing the headwinds of their failed merger. It came to light this week that following multiple rounds of corporate and divisional staff layoffs, Albertsons Cos. is reorganizing its regional structure. The grocer is combining its Intermountain Division with its Denver Division, with that region that now encompasses most of Idaho, Montana and much of Wyoming, as well as Colorado, now being known as the Mountain West Division. That group will be led by Brad Street, who currently oversees Albertsons’ Seattle operations.
“As we continue to evolve and enhance our retail operations, a core part of that effort is ensuring our organizational structure properly enables strong local operational excellence across the regions we serve and also leverages our size and scale,” an Albertsons spokesperson told Progressive Grocer. “As such, we recently made some divisional leadership updates, placing some of our best leaders in new roles and providing new opportunities for our team, as we continue to deliver on our strategy to earn Customers for Life.”
Kroger, meanwhile, is cutting about 200 employees across three office sites at its Cincinnati headquarters. The layoffs reportedly occurred the week of Feb. 3, and included staff working at its downtown Cincinnati headquarters, together with the 84.51° data compilation and analysis unit, and technology and digital team, per the report.
According to a spokesperson: “As we continue delivering fresh, affordable food to our customers, we are focusing on key priority areas that support our go-to-market strategy. As part of this prioritization work, we announced team restructures and a small number of eliminated roles to improve efficiency.”
Kroger also announced this week that David Kennerley, SVP and CFO for PepsiCo Europe, will succeed Todd Foley as SVP and CFO, effective April 3. Kennerley will join Kroger on March 10 as SVP while Foley continues as interim CFO through the end of Kroger's fiscal year 2024 reporting cycle.
4. Wegmans Details 2025 Expansion Plans
Three new Wegmans Food Markets stores are opening in 2025, including two in brand-new markets. The Lake Grove store on New York’s Long Island will kick off the year with an opening on Wednesday, Feb. 26, Wegmans’ first on Long Island.
On June 25, Wegmans will open its Rockville, Md., location. The 80,000- square-foot store in Rockville's Twinbrook Quarter community, will be Wegmans' ninth store in Maryland. A month later, Wegmans will debut its first Connecticut location, in Norwalk. The grocer will officially open the 92,000-square-foot supermarket on Wednesday, July 23.
5. Egg Restrictions
The price of eggs has been a major topic in the public discourse over the past few weeks, as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks and other factors have driven up costs across the supply chain and sparked supply and demand volatility. Retail egg prices jumped 8.4% in December 2024, and the USDA projects egg prices to spike 20.3% in 2025.
Trader Joe's is now limiting egg purchases to a dozen per customer per day in all of its U.S. stores, while Costco is another chain that is putting curbs on this product, informing shoppers that they can only buy three packages of eggs at one time. Giant Eagle has that same three-carton threshold.
