Grocery store chain Kroger plans to close all 14 of its stores in the Raleigh-Durham on August 14th and lay off around 1,500 workers.
“They never really made the kind of impact in North Carolina in the Triangle that they thought they could. They were a Midwestern store," NC State University economist Mike Walden told WRAL.
Kroger will still have a big presence in the Triangle through Harris Teeter, the local grocery chain Kroger bought in 2014. The company plans to sell eight of the Kroger locations to Harris Teeter and a couple others to Food Lion and Crunch Fitness.
The company says it will help he Kroger employees find new jobs. More than half are part-time.
Kroger entered the Raleigh-Durham area in 1989. The company is based in Cincinnati.