GIG HARBOR, Wash. -- Main & Vine, The Kroger Co.’s experimental small-store concept highlighting fresh and local foods, is closing its lone location in in Gig Harbor, Wash., in January, a little less than two years after it opened, a company spokesperson confirmed.
Kristal Howard told Winsight Grocery Business that Main & Vine was a “unique venture for Kroger from the onset.” She did not say why the store is closing.
“From the Main & Vine experience, we have learned many things about some of the best ways to provide quality, fresh and new foods to our customers,” she said. “Our family of companies has already started to incorporate some of these features and unique offerings in other stores across the country, including the new Fred Meyer store opening next month in Gig Harbor.”
Main & Vine will close around Jan. 9, Howard said. Cincinnati-based Kroger is working to transfer the store’s 80 employees to its other stores in the area, including QFC and Fred Meyer.
The news follows recent reports that Ahold Delhaize was closing one of its Bfresh stores and re-evaluating other planned locations for the brand. Like Main & Vine, Bfresh was conceived as a way to test reaching young urban “foodies” in a way conventional supermarkets were not.
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- Kroger's c-store division ranked No. 10 in a year-end update of CSP's 2017 Top 202 list of the largest c-store chains in the United States. The grocer is conducting a strategic review to determine if it should sell its approximately 800-unit convenience-store network.
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