I live in a suburb of Seattle. Since I started my current job three years ago, my evening commute (yes, just the evening one; due to traffic patterns I use different routes in the morning & evening) has taken me past 8 stores, that I know of, that sell groceries. Two Safeways, two Fred Meyer's (a regional chain owned by Kroger's that sells groceries as well as everything from furniture to auto supplies), a QFC (another Kroger-owned brand), an Albertson's, a Thriftway, and a produce market heavy on less-than-fresh produce in varieties preferred by various immigrant populations.
That all began to change in December. I was sick for a time during December, and we had some ferocious winter weather that resulted in five days of school closures/late starts and kept me holed up in my warm house, and then I left for New York to spend the Christmas break with my brother. When I got back in town, I discovered that at some time in the previous three weeks, QFC had closed.
Strike One.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I had a reason to visit the shopping center where the produce store was located, and I discovered that it was now some other kind of store. I can't remember what.
Strike Two.
Around the same time, as part of a several-week -- and so far unsuccessful -- quest to find a bottle of French's worcestershire sauce, which I vastly prefer to Lea & Perrins, I stopped off at Thriftway on the way home from work. I noticed there seemed to be some massive sale going on. Then when I actually started paying attention to what was happening around me, I noticed that there were lots of empty shelves, and lots of clearance items.
I picked up a couple of bargains, and when I got to the checkout stand, I asked the checker, "You folks closing down?" He said his boss wouldn't let them say so, but that I could probably look around and get a pretty good idea of what was going on.
Last night, out of curiosity, I pulled in to the Thriftway parking lot, and sure enough, there were signs on the doors: "We are now closed."
Strike Three.
Until the recent closures, as far as I know all of those stores had been in business for many years. I've lived in my current location for almost six years, and had never seen a food store close in this area. I'm not aware of any changing population patterns that would significantly reduce the demand for food, although I can't say for sure there aren't any.
I'm wondering what's going on. Are there so many people who aren't getting enough to eat that we can no longer support the same number of stores that we've had for the past decade? There was a recent article in the local paper about how commute times have decreased because so many people no longer have jobs to commute to.
Are grocery stores in general experiencing some kind of cutback due to changes in consumer eating patterns? I would actually expect grocery stores to be booming because I would assume people are cooking at home more due to financial inability to eat out as often.
Maybe it's just these particular stores. QFC is pretty much a high-end chain. While "Thriftway" sounds low-end, at least this particular store tended to be on the high end for me; of course, I rarely buy anything that isn't on special for loyalty card holders, and I'm not sure Thriftway even had a loyalty-card program.
On the other hand, these are grocery stores. Corporate chain grocery stores, at that. Well, except for the produce market. Among the most recession-proof of businesses, I would have thought. Two of the three stores were not little mom & pop operations that I would expect to have failed because they just could no longer underwrite staying in business while losing money. As far as I can tell from some brief online research, other QFC's still exist. Just not the one near my home.
So, I'm wondering: Is there a wave of grocery store closings hitting our national economy? Is there a restructuring going on in the retail grocery sector? Have you seen grocery store closings in your area? Can anyone shed any light on this subject?