East End groceries keep dying

Don’t worry, all you Trader Joe’s loyalists, TJ isn’t going anywhere and he may be a reason everyone else is headed out of town. First, it was a fleeing Walmart Neighborhood Market, then Fresh Thyme, and now Lucky’s.

While the Neighborhood Market is undeniably different than the other two, we can’t help but notice the correlation of anyone not named Kroger closing doors. Walmart closed the Neighborhood Market on Shelbyville Road and Blankenbaker Parkway last summer along with another Market and a Superstore. Walmart blamed this on a “change happening in retail.” We know Walmart is much like TJ in that they are going nowhere.

Fresh Thyme and Lucky’s may be sending different messages. According to Supermarket News, Fresh Thyme has slowed its expansion over the last couple of years. In 2017 (when the Louisville location was added) Fresh Thyme rolled out 20 new stores. The next year in 2018 that number was initially expected to rise again, but the grocer opened only 10 new stores. In August (‘19) the Louisville location closed and is now being transformed into a Planet Fitness.

As for the Louisville Lucky’s, at least they’re not alone. They announced on Tuesday that most of their stores will be closing. The Colorado-based chain currently has 39 locations across the country, most of them being in Florida. The closures come following a bad earnings report card causing Mom to get very upset. Lucky’s financially sound mother in this crisis story is the Kroger we all know and love. The Cincinnati mega grocery made a substantial investment in Lucky’s in 2016 and doubled it’s footprint as Kroger was trying its hand at competing with Publix in the Sunshine State.

CEO Rodney McMullen of Kroger said “The amount of investment that it would take for Lucky's to be a meaningful contributor to Kroger overall, and the efforts that it would take, we just didn't think it created a good return for the investments that were needed to be made.”

What some may believe to be a ‘Louisville problem’ in supporting these small, farmer’s market style groceries, has proven to be untrue. This is the ongoing battle with local and small regional stores trying to compete with the big dogs. We can all, with a little bit of mourning, breathe a sigh of relief that we as consumers and a city did not cause this exodus of grocery stores - in case you were feeling guilty.