KINGSPORT — Community members and Kroger supporters gathered outside the grocery store to protest the closure of the grocery chain’s Kingsport store.
Approximately 40 to 50 people were gathered with signs outside the store, according to an estimate by the Kingsport Times News around 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday.
The United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400 Union, which represents local Kroger employees, held the protests Tuesday in both Kingsport and Abingdon, Virginia. Both stores are planned to close their doors on Sept. 19 of this year — almost two months from now.
“Closing our Kroger will hurt customers and the community,” said Steve Meador, a UFCW Local 400 representative at the protest. “Customers deserve their choice of where to shop, and they will have to travel further to access groceries.”
Kroger announced in June that 60 stores would close nationwide over the next 18 months. An online petition started several days later to save the Kingsport store has now garnered more than 2,000 signatures.
Shoppers talk potential closure
Located at 1664 E. Stone Drive, the Kingsport Kroger has long been a staple to the local community. The Kingsport store houses a pharmacy, offers grocery pickup and a fuel center with its current store.
Several shoppers said they have bought groceries and under products at the Kingsport Kroger for as long as it’s been around town.
“I’ve been coming here for about 45 years, counting [the old store] down there,” Kelly Howard said. “My dog, I get her chicken here. I can come here in five minutes, and I can boil her tenderloins, and I can get my food real quick.”
Another shopper, Steve Smith, called shopping at Kroger “a way of life.” He said the Norton, Virginia, Kroger closed many years ago and then he started coming to the Kingsport one. He now lives in Church Hill and still shops at the Kingsport Kroger.
“In all honesty, I have been in here when there wasn’t hardly room to walk,” Smith said. “So they can’t say they don’t make any money.”
Employees speak out
Several Kroger employees shared about what it would mean for them to lose not only the store, but their jobs. Amber Jones, a five-year employee at the Kingsport Kroger in the dairy department, spoke about the community of folks who work and shop there.
“Everyone knows how much we all love each other,” she said. “You’re our regular customers, employees that have been here for years. We really hope this works so that we continue to see you guys every week, every day.”
Tiffany Jones, another employee of the Kingsport location, echoed a similar sentiment. She has worked at the store for nine years.
“You all depend on us just as much as we depend on you,” Tiffany Jones said. “This store needs to stay here so we can stay here for you, and so we can keep our friends and our family together.”
Background
Kingsport’s first Kroger opened on the corner of Cherokee and New Street in the late 1940’s. The Cherokee Building, which housed the grocery store, was located across the street from the Union Bus terminal, according to a post by the Kingsport Archives.
A lease agreement for the East Stone Drive location was signed in 1973, according to records kept by the Sullivan County Register of Deeds.