NoPa Lucky Supermarket to Permanently Close on September 11

The Lucky supermarket at 1750 Fulton St. in NoPa will permanently close on September 11, according to a WARN letter from Lucky's parent company, Save Mart Supermarkets. The closure leaves NoPa residents and University of San Francisco students, whose campus sits just steps from the store, with one fewer full-service grocery option in the neighborhood.

The shuttering continues a rapid contraction of Lucky's presence in San Francisco. Last November, Lucky closed its Bayview District location just three years after that store's grand opening. District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton responded to that closure on Instagram: "This is extremely disheartening and another blow to the Bayview community." With the Fulton Street store now following suit, only one Lucky will remain in the city, at 1515 Sloat Blvd.

Shoppers displaced from the NoPa location will find alternatives within a mile, including Trader Joe's, Target, Arguello Market, Gus's, Whole Foods, and Bi-Rite Market. Whether those options fully replace a neighborhood grocery anchor for students and lower-income residents is a question the reporting does not yet answer.

The Lucky closure lands against a broader wave of grocery industry retrenchment. Grocery Outlet, the Bay Area-based bargain grocer, announced plans to close 36 stores as part of what its chief executive described on an earnings call as an "optimization plan" targeting financially underperforming locations and an unused distribution center, with those closures set to take effect before year's end. Meanwhile, Kroger and Albertsons closed multiple California locations last year and laid off hundreds of employees as inflation squeezed consumers and rising labor costs compressed margins. Kroger, which owns Ralphs and Food 4 Less, has been restructuring since its proposed merger with Albertsons collapsed in 2024.

No reason for the specific closure of the Fulton Street store has been provided by Save Mart Supermarkets, and the company has not issued a public statement beyond what appeared in the WARN letter obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, which first reported the news.