Sector Update: Supermarkets

A quartet of grocery chains has announced planned store openings. They are:

• Grocery Outlet (Emeryville, Calif.) is set to open two locations in suburban Cleveland on Jan. 23. The stores – in Parma and Brooklyn – bring to five the chain’s total of site in the state; the others are in Central Ohio (Ontario); suburban Cincinnati (Eastgate) and suburban Youngstown (Boardman). Overall, Grocery Outlet operates more than 520 stores across 16 states through a network of independent owners.

• H-E-B (San Antonio) has unveiled plans for its first flagship-branded store in the Dallas city limits. The site is a 10-acre property at the southeast corner of Hillcrest Road and LBJ Freeway, inside the loop in Dallas. The project is still in its beginning stages; no timetable for its opening is available yet. H-E-B first entered the Dallas Fort Worth in 2001 via its Central Market chain, which has stores Plano, Southlake, and Fort Worth. In June 2024, the company opened Joe V’s Smart Shop Wheatland in Dallas, making it the first location outside the Houston area. A second location, Joe V’s Smart Shop Buckner at 5204 S. Buckner Blvd. in Dallas, is expected to open this spring, and a third location is planned at State Highway 183 and Story Road in Irving.

• Speaking of the northern Texas market, Kroger has acquired land in the fast-growing Denton suburb of Little Elm for a new store in a locale that looks to eventually be home to several retailers/groceries. Kroger’s buy follows a recent announcement that Weber & Co. had purchased 22 acres of land at the same intersection for a 225,000-square-foot, Target-anchored retail center, called Bates Towne Crossing. H-E-B also owns the land directly west of the future Target but has not released timing for developing the land. In addition, developer GBT recently announced plans to develop a Sprouts-anchored shopping center on the northeast corner of the intersection. Schedules for the openings of the above stores are not yet available.

• Wegmans Food Markets (Rochester, N.Y.) has revealed plans for its first store in the Pittsburgh market. The East Coast grocer, which currently has about 110 stores, is teaming with Sippel Enterprises LP to open a store in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, which is on the city’s far north side. Timing for the store’s opening is not yet available.