After almost five years, Kroger is ending home delivery of groceries in Florida based on the impending closure of its Groveland hub for the service, eliminating 1,403 jobs statewide, including 181 in Jacksonville.
The Kroger Co., based in Cincinnati, announced Nov. 18 that it will close five hub fulfillment facilities in January.
They are in Groveland, west of Orlando; Frederick, Maryland; Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin; Nashville, Tennessee; and Oklahoma City.
Jacksonville and two other "spoke" stations also will close.
Northeast Florida customers are receiving letters from Kroger stating, “Kroger Delivery Is Ending in Your Area.”
It says the home delivery service will end Jan. 6, 2026.
The company has no Kroger-branded stores in Florida, but it does own Harris Teeter and is adding to that footprint. Now with one Florida Harris Teeter in Fernandina Beach, the banner announced it will lease a new store to be built in Jacksonville, and there are indications another could open in St. Johns County.
Kroger home grocery delivery in Florida was fed by Groveland, a hub-and-spoke system that included a station in Jacksonville.
A Kroger spokesperson said by email Nov. 18 that Groveland and three more locations will close in Florida, comprising Cocoa Beach, Jacksonville and Tampa.
Kroger notified the state Nov. 8 at the Worker Adjustment and Training Notification database that it will permanently close the four locations as of Feb. 1, 2026.
The jobs comprise 935 in Groveland; 234 in Tampa; 181 in Jacksonville; and 53 in Cocoa Beach.
The majority, 167, of the Jacksonville jobs are the delivery drivers of the Kroger-branded trucks often seen throughout the area.
The spokesperson said that the Jacksonville delivery service will accept orders through Jan. 5 and the last delivery day is Jan. 6.
The last order days for Cocoa Beach, Groveland and Tampa will be Jan. 30 and the last delivery day will be Jan. 31.
The spokesperson said five fulfillment centers continue to operate, serving areas in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Texas.
Customers order on Kroger.com and the retailer’s app and groceries are delivered in temperature-controlled vans.
Kroger announced June 9, 2021, that it began delivering groceries in Jacksonville.
It said in a news release that the Jacksonville “spoke” location to its Groveland “hub” would employ about 180 employees.
In May 2021, Kroger began building-out a logistics operation in North Jacksonville to deliver fresh groceries.
Kroger Fulfillment Network LLC built-out a 62,208-square-foot space at 1 Imeson Park Blvd., No. 200.
The project was described as a cross-dock for mercantile goods, which means goods are brought in and quickly shipped out to their destination.
The city issued a permit May 11, 2021, for Caddell Construction Co. LLC of Jacksonville to build-out the space at a cost of $205,000.
The fulfillment center was a new concept for Kroger, “where customer orders are picked daily by Fulfillment Center Associates and delivered to customer homes the following day in Kroger refrigerated vans by Deliver Drivers.”
The Orlando Sentinel reported in April 2021 that Kroger shipped its first groceries from the Groveland facility directly to customers.
The June release said the 375,000-square-foot Groveland operation employed nearly 400 people and could fulfill thousands of orders per day.
Kroger ended home delivery in South Florida in May 2024.
Kroger said in the Nov. 18 news release that it announced “updates to its eCommerce plan, resulting in a differentiated and simplified customer experience, new households shopping at Kroger, and immediate eCommerce profitability improvements.”
“Following a comprehensive review, Kroger identified opportunities to optimize its fulfillment network” by closing the three facilities “while monitoring the remaining facilities’ performance.”
Kroger said it expects the updates “to have a positive effect to eCommerce operating profit of approximately $400 million in 2026.”
“This will be used to improve the customer experience through lower prices and better store conditions while also improving operating margins,” it said.
Kroger expects charges in the third quarter of about $2.6 billion due to the closings “and the automated fulfillment network not meeting financial expectations.”
“The company expects these closures to have a neutral effect on its identical sales without fuel,” it said.
Kroger said its hybrid eCommerce offerings will deliver accelerated online growth, “using its strong and growing store footprint, well-established third-party delivery providers, and automated fulfillment facilities where applicable.”
“eCommerce remains a core part of serving customers who want better value, wide selection and flexible ways to shop,” said Ron Sargent, Kroger’s chairman and CEO, in the news release.
“We are building on a strong foundation with five consecutive quarters of double-digit eCommerce sales growth and increased profitability improvements. We are taking decisive action to make shopping easier, offer faster delivery times, provide more options to our customers, and we expect to deliver profitable sales growth as a result.”
Kroger said it expanded its Instacart relationship as its primary delivery fulfillment provider across Kroger.com and the Kroger app.
Kroger also broadened its relationship with DoorDash and announced the upcoming launch of a new customer experience on Uber Eats Marketplace in early 2026.
“In geographies where Kroger sees higher density of demand, the company will continue to take advantage of automated customer fulfillment to increase customer engagement, capacity and improve productivity and profitability.”
Kroger says it operates more than 2,700 stores under about two dozen banner names.
Under the Kroger banner, the company says it has 1,238 grocery stores in 16 states – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.