Store Closings Leave Shoppers Searching for Alternatives in Central U.S.
At the midpoint of the year, the grocery landscape is dotted with both opening and closings around the country. Some of the latest closing are hitting the nation’s Heartland.
This month, Oklahoma City, Ok.-based Homeland Acquisition Corp. announced that it is closing four locations in its home state and one in Georgia. The employee-owned company runs more than 80 stores under the Homeland, Piggly Wiggly, Discount Foods, Food World, CashSaver and United Supermarkets banners.
Set to shutter on Aug. 16, the sites were chosen based on their financial performance. The closings include Homeland locations in Pauls Valley and Jay, Okla., a United Supermarkets store in Kingfisher, Okla., and a Discount Foods in Ponca City, Okla.; a Homeland-owned Piggly Wiggly in Gordon, Ga., is also going dark next month.
"By closing these stores, we are able to focus on the greatest opportunities that strengthen other communities, grow communities and to really strengthen our organization by focusing resources in those areas," spokesperson Christin King told The Oklahoman newspaper.
Also this month, two stores in Central Iowa have ceased operations leaving residents to drive more miles to do their in-store grocery shopping.
Dayton Community Grocery announced its closure on a social media post. “In the recent years, we have mentioned the many challenges in the grocery business facing our small town grocery store,” the Dayton Community Grocery Board wrote, sharing that they tried to stay afloat by sharing stores with other stores, cutting costs, applying for grants and partnering with Iowa State University Extension, but those initiatives were simply not enough to sustain operations.
They continued, “Despite all efforts and more, we have found ourselves at a crossroads. The store is just not able to compete with big-box stores to generate the income necessary to keep going at this rate. The board doesn’t want to be any further in debt than we currently are, and we feel like the responsible thing to do is to go out debt-free.”
Another area independent operator, Stratford Food Center, was affected by Dayton’s closing because they shared a delivery truck. That store, about 10 miles away from Dayton, also shut down this month.
Independents and employee-owned stores aren’t the only ones making tough decisions. Kroger recently announced that it plans to shut 60 underperforming stores within the next year and a half. Earlier this year, Amazon closed two of its Amazon Fresh physical stores located in Manassas, Va., and Thousand Oaks, Calif.
At the beginning of 2025, research and advisory firm Coresight Research projected that more than 15,000 retail stores will shutter this year. In June, Coresight reported that it has tracked 5,822 total retail closings as of June 27.
While closings have impacted several retailers and markets, store openings continue, too. For example, Kroger continues to open new locations, while other chains, including ALDI, Sprouts and Publix, among others, are regularly expanding their footprints.