Grocery Outlet’s California Comeback: Expansion Returns After Brutal Store Purge
Grocery Outlet is opening stores again in California. A new location in Ontario Ranch starts business July 23. Independent operators Gloria and Jason Pineda will run it. Four more openings follow by the end of August. They target Ramona, San Francisco, Clovis and Petaluma.
But don’t mistake this for unchecked growth. The discount chain just finished closing 36 stores in March. Nine sat in California. Locations in Azusa, Brawley, El Cajon, La Habra, Ontario, Poway, Kerman, Patterson and Ridgecrest shut down. The rest spread across Idaho, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The company hired Gordon Brothers to market those sites for sublease…