91-year-old grocery chain closes another store in a key market

<p>91-year-old grocery chain closes another store in a key market</p>
<p>Nina Zdinjak</p>
<p>6 min read</p>
<p>Do you know how many times over the last year you visited a grocery store? I don’t either, but it feels like nearly every day, I need to drop by just to get that one thing (which turns out to be at least five more items).</p>
<p>My experience reflects industry statistics indicating that the average U.S. household makes approximately 294 grocery trips per year (about 5.6 trips per week), a 1% increase from 2025, according to 2026 data from NielsenIQ.</p>
<p>Despite the rise in e-commerce, physical grocery stores remain the primary channel for the vast majority of households. However, a challenging economic climate is still driving many closures in the sector.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, major national chain Grocery Outlet closed 36 underperforming stores, following a fourth-quarter comparable sales decline. These closures are concentrated in the East Coast (Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) and West Coast (California).</p>
<p>Grocery Outlet is not the only grocery retailer forced to optimize its operations to improve profitability. For example, Kroger is in the process of shuttering roughly 60 "unprofitable" stores over an 18-month period extending through 2026, reported TheStreet’s Kirk O’Neil.</p>
<p>Another Lucky supermarket in San Francisco closes for good</p>
<p>The Save Mart Companies, the parent company of popular regional supermarket chain Lucky, recently confirmed it will close its store at 1750 Fulton St. near the University of San Francisco, reported San Francisco Chronicle.</p>
<p>The closure is set for September 11, 2026, affecting 48 employees.</p>
<p>“We routinely assess the performance of all of our stores to ensure they meet business standards. Through the normal course of business, we sometimes have to make the tough decision to close an underperforming location,” Save Mart’s senior director of communication and government affairs told the Chronicle.</p>
<p>All 48 employees at the grocery stores, including 31 multipurpose clerks and five store managers, have been notified. Some of them might be able to transfer to another store, according to the company’s letter, SFGate reported.</p>
<p>Why is Lucky closing another grocery store in San Francisco?</p>
<p>Lucky was founded back in 1925 in San Leandro, Calif. Over the decades, the brand's ownership changed many times, and since 2007, it has been a part of The Save Mart Companies.</p>
<p>Currently, the chain includes about 57 stores in and around the San Francisco Bay Area, according to The Save Mart Companies’ website.</p>
<p>“...our Associates are passionate about the diverse flavors that Californians love to make and eat. Lucky stores provide customers with great value on everyday items and has everything they need, all with a flair and diversity unique to the Bay Area,” reads the description on the official web page.</p>
<p>In November 2025, Lucky closed its Bayview location, just three years after it opened. The closure dealt a crushing blow to a neighborhood that has historically struggled with a lack of full-size grocery stores.</p>
<p>“This is extremely disheartening and another blow to the Bayview community,” shared District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton in an Instagram post, as previously reported by SFGate.</p>
<p>Now, after the Fulton Street store’s closure this fall, there will be just one Lucky in San Francisco, located at 1515 Sloat Blvd.</p>
<p>Keene noted that the latest store closure is “based on economic factors.”</p>
<p>“Closing a store is not a decision we take lightly, but this store has had performance issues for an extended period of time. We have worked to enhance and remodel the location, but it has not shown the sales and profit needed to continue operations. In fact, despite the best efforts of a great team, we have lost money year over year at this location,” Keene wrote in the letter.</p>
<p>San Francisco remains a key market for retailers</p>
<p>Despite Lucky’s struggles to remain profitable across its stores in San Francisco, the second-most densely populated American city remains an important market for retailers.</p>
<p>In addition to the high population density, San Francisco has the second-highest median household income in the nation at $143,900, according to Cushman &amp; Wakefield’s Q4 2025 report.</p>
<p>High average household income makes an area important for premium grocers such as Whole Foods, Bi-Rite, and high-volume value players like Trader Joe’s.</p>
<p>With the latest closure, NoPa residents and University of San Francisco students, whose campus is just steps from Lucky's closing Fulton St. location, will have to shop at Trader Joe’s, Target, Arguello Market, Gus’s, Whole Foods, or Bi-Rite Market, all of which are within a mile of the closing grocery store, pointed out SFGate.</p>
<p>This suggests that San Francisco remains a major hub for retailers across industries. However, while demand shouldn’t be an issue, other challenges — such as high labor, energy, and insurance costs alongside fierce competition — play a role in declining profits for some retailers.</p>
<p>The San Francisco energy index advanced 5% in just the two months ending in February 2026, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p>
<p>Local shoppers express concern about Lucky’s closure</p>
<p>Grocery chains across the United States face headwinds. In addition to fierce competition, supermarkets faced a spike in inflation after the Covid pandemic, as food-at-home inflation increased by 11.4% in 2022 and 5% in 2023, while revenue rose only 0.5% higher in 2022 year over year, before falling below 2021 levels in 2023 and 2024 and recovering in 2025, according to February data from IBISWorld.</p>
<p>Some commenters also raised concerns about the risk of food deserts, making it harder for older people and those with lower incomes to afford trips to stores located further away.</p>
<p>The news of Lucky’s closure reached Reddit, sparking a discussion and a series of comments expressing sadness and disappointment.</p>
<p>“I don’t like closures that cause food deserts and impact seniors and more vulnerable people in our community," wrote user Swimming-Squash-3573.</p>
<p>"The neighborhood is losing the Lucky pharmacy along with the store. That is a critical one-stop shop for some people. Recently, the Fillmore lost their Safeway AND their Walgreens, surrounded by low-income senior housing. It makes it really hard for people.”</p>
<p>"This is my local store and it's going to be absolutely devastating," wrote user Belgand. "The only full service grocery store within walking distance is going away. Expensive? It's definitely not as expensive as having to shop at Gus' or Whole Foods and that's what this closure is doing to the neighborhood."</p>