Grocery Outlet to close eight Maryland stores amid 36 nationwide closures

Grocery Outlet announced it will close 36 stores across the United States, and eight of those closures are in Maryland, a move that includes the Grocery Outlet on Belair Road that opened last January and has raised alarm among Catonsville shoppers. The closures were disclosed alongside the company’s fourth-quarter and fiscal 2025 results, and the chain, headquartered in Emeryville, California, said the removals are part of an “optimization” to improve profitability.

The company reported mixed operating metrics in the earnings period: net sales rose about 11 percent year-over-year in the most recent quarter, but Grocery Outlet recorded a net loss for fiscal 2025 of $224.9 million and, separately reported, an operating loss of $234.8 million for the period. The retailer issued fiscal 2026 guidance projecting net sales between $4.60 billion and $4.72 billion while warning comparable-store sales could decline as much as 2 percent, even as it plans to open 30 to 33 net new stores next year under a revised expansion strategy.

CEO Jason Potter framed the closures as a necessary correction. “We identified stores in the network that we concluded did not have a viable path to sustained profitability,” he said on the earnings call, and he added, “It's clear now that we expanded too quickly, and these closures are a direct correction.” The company also signaled operational changes, saying it will move to a more clustered growth model to boost supply-chain efficiency and marketing leverage.

Grocery Outlet entered Maryland in June 2022 with its Hagerstown store, and WMAR-2 News reports 14 more Maryland locations opened after that first store, implying a 15-store presence before this round of closures. Patch similarly notes the chain operates 570 stores across 16 states and that 24 of the 36 closures are in the eastern United States where Grocery Outlet had accelerated expansion. WMAR lists seven Maryland locations that will remain open in the immediate area: Glen Burnie, Beltsville, Milford Mill, Eldersburg, Edgewood, Elkton, and Salisbury.

Local reaction has been immediate but uneven. WMAR reported residents in Catonsville are not happy to hear about the closure, and the Belair Road location’s pending shutdown has drawn particular attention because it was one of the company’s newest Maryland openings. While no Maryland store operators’ social posts were provided in the company excerpts, Daily Voice documented precedent in New Jersey, where a Mays Landing store thanked the community on Facebook and said, “Serving this community has been both an honor and a privilege, and while this chapter is coming to a close, our commitment to community engagement and service will continue through other avenues.”

Grocery Outlet also flagged external pressures on low-price grocers, with CEO Jason Potter pointing to delays in federally funded benefit programs such as SNAP as a factor affecting customer spending. The company said it will offer closed locations for sublease through Gordon Brothers as it reallocates capital. As Grocery Outlet reshapes its footprint and opens new clustered stores, the immediate question for Baltimore-area shoppers and commercial landlords will be which neighborhoods lose a discount grocer and how those storefronts are repurposed.