Kroger’s plans announced Friday to close 60 stores include at least two in Michiana.
The grocery chain, with 1,200 stores in 16 states, hasn’t released a store closure list. But the Indianapolis-based United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700 union says the list includes the stores in South Bend on Western Avenue and in Elkhart on Johnson Street.
In an earnings report Friday the company’s interim CEO said the chain was actually benefitting from more people eating in to save money, but “not all of our stores are delivering the sustainable results we need.”
Both of the stores have long anchored urban neighborhoods with high poverty rates.
State Representative Maureen Bauer, in a Facebook post Monday, said closing the South Bend store will be a “devastating loss. For many families on the west side, this Kroger is one of the only nearby options for fresh, affordable groceries. Its closure deepens an already growing food desert.”
The union local said the stores plan to close in early August.
