Grocery Outlet closing 8 ‘underperforming’ stores in MD

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Grocery Outlet plans to shutter 36 “underperforming stores,” including eight in Maryland.

The closures are because the business “expanded too quickly,” the California-based bargain retailer announced during an earnings call March 4.

Jason Potter, Grocery Outlet president and CEO, said that the retailer’s fourth-quarter results were “unacceptable” and that there’s “more work to do than we expected.”

The Maryland locations slated for closure are:

• 1753 Chesaco Ave. in Baltimore
• 6510 Baltimore National Pike, Suite A in Catonsville
• 598 Cranbrook Road in Cockeysville
• 5410 Lynx Lane in Columbia
• 1713 Massey Blvd. in Hagerstown
• 7660 Belair Road in Nottingham
• 11120 Reisterstown Road in Owings Mills
• 200 Clifton Blvd. in Westminster

Why is Grocery Outlet closing stores?

Potter, who joined the company just over a year ago, said the bargain grocery store analyzed its portfolio and opted to close 36 locations, 24 of which are in the eastern United States.

Potter said the remaining 51 stores in the eastern U.S. ended the fourth quarter with a 3.3% increase in sales.

The closures, he added, should improve the company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation to about $12 million.

In late September, sales began to decline, partially because of marketing problems and Electronic Benefits Transfer distributions that “negatively impacted our SNAP business and affordability,” according to Potter.

What’s planned for the future?

The retailer opened 42 new stores last year and closed five. By year’s end the company had approximately 570 stores across 16 states.

Grocery Outlet is to open another 30-33 new stores in 2026 under a more “disciplined approach” or “clustered model,” to improve supply chain efficiency, Potter said, and adding that there will be a “model refresh rollout of 150 stores this year.”

What is Grocery Outlet?

A press release about the opening of a store in Burlington County stated that Grocery Outlet is an Emeryville, California-based company that is “a high-growth, extreme value retailer of quality, name-brand consumables and fresh products sold primarily through a network of independently operated stores.”

The company follows a strategy of “opportunistic buying,” an executive with the parent firm, Grocery Outlet Holding Corp., said in a previous Courier-Post story.

Reporting by Celeste E. Whittaker, Cherry Hill Courier-Post / USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.

USA Today writer Saleen Martin and Daily Record staff contributed to this report.