Mariano’s announced it is closing its West Glenview location, which has a Northbrook address and is nestled in a shopping center surrounded by Northbrook. Another area closure is the Northfield Mariano’s, which has shut its doors after a previous announcement that it would close.
Remaining open are the Glenview Mariano’s on Waukegan Road at Golf Road and the Northbrook Mariano’s at 784 Skokie Boulevard, according to Amanda Puck, spokeswoman for Mariano’s.
The Glenview store, at 25 Waukegan Road, had a re-grand opening Saturday, and both the Glenview and Northbrook locations got a new vendor, Stan’s Donuts.
“The Village learned (June 24) that the Mariano’s on Willow Road plans to close the store in August along with two other locations in the greater area,” said David Just, director of communications and community engagement for the village of Glenview.
“We’ve reached out to Kroger to learn more about the decision and understand their future plans.”
He noted the West Glenview Mariano’s has a Northbrook address but is located within Glenview’s corporate boundary.
Numerous other grocery stores remain open in Glenview, he noted, including another Mariano’s location, three Jewel-Oscos, Heinen’s, Aldi, Trader Joe’s and others.
Near Glenview’s southern boundary, a Tony’s Fresh Market, Fresh Farms International Market, Walmart, Patel Brothers and Deli 4 You, a Polish deli, all in Niles, offer additional options.
In Northbrook, Trader Joe’s, The Fresh Market, Whole Foods, Sunset Foods and Jewel-Osco provide grocery offerings in addition to the remaining Mariano’s.
Mariano’s is closing the West Glenview location, as well as stores in Buffalo Grove and west suburban Bloomingdale, six months after a failed merger with Albertsons ended the prospects of an arranged marriage with Jewel. The closures are part of a broader cost-cutting initiative by parent company Kroger.
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The closures reduce Mariano’s 44-store retail footprint by 7%, the company confirmed last week. At the same time, Mariano’s is remodeling a number of stores in the 15-year-old chain, whose future seemed uncertain just last year.
“We are closing stores, but we’re making sure that we’re reinvesting in others and in the communities we serve,” Puck said.
In December, Albertsons terminated a planned $24.6 billion megamerger with Kroger after being sued by the Federal Trade Commission and several states over antitrust concerns in creating what would have become the largest traditional supermarket chain and the second biggest grocery retailer behind Walmart.
Albertsons owns Jewel, the largest Chicago-area grocery chain, which would have created significant overlap with Mariano’s stores, likely requiring divestitures of many locations.
Hoping to satisfy regulators as part of the proposed merger, the combined company was planning to sell off 579 stores across the U.S., including 35 in Illinois. Instead, both chains are going it alone, with Kroger announcing its own downsizing, including three Mariano’s stores.
Kroger said it would offer roles in other stores to all employees displaced by the closings.
Mariano’s was launched in 2010 by former Dominick’s executive Bob Mariano. The chain grew quickly in the wake of the 2013 demise of Dominick’s, a venerable Chicago grocer, which was shuttered by its parent company, Safeway. In 2015, supermarket giant Kroger bought Mariano’s parent company, Milwaukee-based Roundy’s, for $800 million.
Founded in 1899 as Jewel Tea, a horse-drawn delivery service selling tea and coffee, Jewel evolved into the largest Chicago-area grocery chain, with 188 stores. In 2013, Jewel was sold to Cerberus Capital Management as part of a $3.3 billion acquisition that also included the now publicly traded Albertsons grocery chain.
Robert Channick contributed to this article.