A Washington, D.C., Safeway store that has served its neighborhood for nearly four decades will permanently close on May 16.
The Safeway at Hechinger Mall is set to shut down, with its pharmacy ceasing operations even sooner on April 1, as parent company Albertsons continues trimming its nationwide footprint amid mounting cost pressures and a failed mega-merger.
In a statement reported by DC News Now, Safeway said: "Like all retailers, we are constantly evaluating our store footprint and have to look at every angle of the business. This includes our real estate portfolio. We are coming to the end of our lease at this location, and have decided to reinvest our resources into other existing stores."
The issue has drawn criticism from those who see a troubling pattern of reduced consumer choice in American communities. When a grocer with roots stretching back to 1915 pulls out of a neighborhood it has anchored for decades, the downstream effects on competition and prices deserve scrutiny.
Safeway was acquired by Albertsons in a $9.2 billion merger completed in 2015 that also included Vons, according to SEC filings. Albertsons itself was founded in 1939 and today operates approximately 2,243 stores across 22 banners in 35 states, according to company disclosures.
The grocery giant had attempted to merge with Kroger in a proposed $24.6 billion deal, but the Federal Trade Commission blocked the merger in 2024, according to Yahoo Finance reports. Two years after that collapse, Albertsons has been aggressively streamlining operations to find efficiencies on its own.
In early 2025, Albertsons announced plans to cut $1.5 billion in expenses by 2027. That initiative has already resulted in the elimination of hundreds of corporate roles, including 225 jobs at an office in Phoenix, Arizona, and 156 positions at two offices in Pleasanton, California, as reported by BoiseDev.
At least 30 locations were shuttered in 2025 alone. According to TheStreet, Safeway closed 12 stores that year, while Albertsons Companies' latest earnings report noted 15 closures across multiple banners. Specific 2025 shutdowns included a Carrs store in Anchorage, Alaska, in May, an Albertsons in Southwest Portland, Oregon, in July, and a United Supermarkets location in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, also in July.
The closures have continued into 2026. A Vons store in Escondido, California, and an Albertsons store in Las Vegas, Nevada, both closed in May 2026, adding to the growing list that now includes the D.C. Hechinger Mall Safeway.
Albertsons' third-quarter fiscal 2025 results showed net sales of $19.1 billion, a 1.9% increase year over year, with comparable sales up 2.4%. Selling and administrative expenses as a percentage of net sales and other revenue declined slightly to 24.9% from 25.1% in the same period the prior year — a modest improvement that management is clearly chasing harder.
Albertsons CEO Susan Morris framed the strategy bluntly in an earnings call: "As we navigate a dynamic operating environment, we must unlock the sustainable efficiencies to reinvest our strategic growth initiatives to offset inflationary headwinds, including annual union labor cost increases." That language — particularly the reference to union labor cost increases — signals that rising workforce expenses remain a central pressure point driving store closures and restructuring.
For free-market advocates, this is a textbook case. When labor costs rise faster than productivity gains, businesses must either raise prices or cut capacity. Albertsons is doing both, and communities that lose a store bear the real cost.
This is not an Albertsons-only story. According to Coresight, U.S. retailers are expected to close approximately 7,900 stores in 2026, down 4.5% from 2025 but still a staggering figure. On the brighter side, roughly 5,500 new locations are projected to open, up 4.4%. The net effect, however, still tilts toward contraction in many communities.
Shmuel Shayowitz, President and Chief Lending Officer at Approved Funding, put the consumer impact plainly: "For consumers, the fallout means fewer choices, diminished access to in-person shopping, and, in some cases, higher prices due to reduced competition." Industry analysts cited by ScienceDirect echoed that concern, noting that widespread closures of physical retail stores "significantly impact business outcomes, urban communities, and regional economies."
The labor picture compounds the challenge. A Challenger, Gray, & Christmas report found that more than 1.2 million job cuts were made in 2025 — a 58% increase from the year prior — with nearly 93,000 of those in the retail sector alone, a 123% surge. As of May 2026, the U.S. unemployment rate stood at 4.4%, with approximately 7.6 million Americans out of work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For anyone watching the grocery aisle, the message is clear: efficiency is king, and stores that cannot justify their lease will not survive the next chapter of American retail.