Kroger to close three automated delivery fulfillment sites, incur $2.6 billion charge

Reuters ^ | 11/18/25 | Anuja Bharat Mistry

[DallasBiff]

Nov 18 (Reuters) - Kroger (KR.N) will close three automated delivery fulfillment facilities and record an impairment charge of about $2.6 billion in its third quarter, as the U.S. grocer expands its third-party delivery partnerships. The company said on Tuesday it would shutter the centers it operates with British online supermarket and technology group Ocado (OCDO.L) in Wisconsin, Maryland, and Florida in January, while monitoring the rest.

Kroger, which had partnered with Ocado in 2018 to deploy the company's Smart Platform for automated fulfillment centers, expects the closures to have no impact on its core sales.

Ocado said it would receive over $250 million in compensation following the closures, and expects an impact of about $50 million in fiscal year 2026 for its fee revenue in fiscal year 2026. Kroger had strengthened its partnership with online grocery and food delivery firms such as Instacart (CART.O),, DoorDash (DASH.O), and UberEats (UBER.N), as part of its efforts to rework its e-commerce strategy, and expects to improve e-commerce profitability by about $400 million in its fiscal year 2026.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: delivery; food; groceries; kroger

[DallasBiff]

I'm old fashioned, prefer brick and mortar grocery stores.

[kawhill]

Me too, that was my first real job. I found out what taxes were.

[marktwain]

I had that experience as well.

I asked: What is the FICA? How can they take my wages?

I was 16 years old, as I recall.

[napscoordinator]

The villagers are freaking out understandably. Some need delivery to survive. It does suck that 1400 people are losing their jobs in deep red lake county. It’s a wonder why voters hate corporations.

[Mushinronshasan]

South Sumter county FL is now left with Walmart as the only grocer around.

[catnipman]

“Kroger had strengthened its partnership with online grocery and food delivery firms such as Instacart (CART.O),, DoorDash (DASH.O), and UberEats (UBER.N), as part of its efforts to rework its e-commerce strategy”

that sounds like an even WORSE strategy than operating automated delivery fulfillment facilities ...

personally, you couldn’t pay me enough to use doordash or ubereats, and i’ve never gotten instacart to do anything useful ... instacart always shows everything you want is available, but as far i found, all of that everything was a mirage ...