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Several grocery stores are shutting down during the month of November as the retail market remains tight and prices surge. Some Shoppers stores, Amazon Fresh locations and a CVS Pharmacy are closing their doors, meaning customers will have to choose somewhere else for their go-to grocer. One financial expert, Michael Ryan, founder of MichaelRyanMoney.com, told Newsweek, in part: “These chains were built for a world that no longer exists.” Why It Matters Retailers have been forced to close underperforming locations as competition remains fierce in the industry. Higher prices from tariffs and overall inflation have caused consumers to largely reel back spending, causing a hit for some grocers and clothing stores alike. The Amazon Fresh logo is displayed outside of an Amazon Fresh grocery store in Torrance, California, on July 29, 2025. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) What To Know Four Shoppers stores in Maryland are slated to close in November. Specifically, the College Park, Laurel, Capitol Heights and Germantown locations will be closing by November 8: •College Park: 4720 Cherry Hill Road •Laurel: 13600 Baltimore Ave., Suite 100 •Capitol Heights: 4801 Marlboro Pike •Germantown: 18066 Mateny Road Previously, the stores’ parent company, United Natural Foods, Inc., told The Baltimore Sun that “like any other retailer,” they are “constantly working to optimize” their footprint. “Which includes investing in stores as well as closing stores where necessary so we can operate as effectively and efficiently as possible,” the company said in its statement. Amazon Fresh Amazon is also closing four of its Amazon Fresh supermarkets in Southern California by the middle of November. The closures arrive as the company evaluates store performance. “Retailers that fail to adapt to new consumer expectations and personalized marketing are facing a crisis, while digital marketplaces offer rock-bottom prices that make foot traffic obsolete,” Michael Ryan, a finance expert and the founder of MichaelRyanMoney.com, told Newsweek. “This is ruthless capital reallocation. Consumer spending actually stayed strong, but a larger share of dollars went to fewer retailers. Amazon, Walmart, and discount chains are vacuuming up share.” CVS Pharmacy Meanwhile, in El Paso, Texas, CVS Pharmacy will be closing its location at 8041 N. Mesa Street. The pharmacy will close officially on November 20, with all prescriptions transferred to a nearby store at 680 E. Red Road. Affected employees will be offered similar roles at other locations. “Maintaining access to pharmacy services in the communities we serve is an important factor we consider when making store closure decisions. Other factors include local market dynamics, population shifts, a community’s store density, and ensuring there are other geographic access points to meet the needs of the community,” a spokesperson for the company said previously. “We’ll continue to provide the community with outstanding service at our eleven remaining CVS Pharmacy locations in El Paso. We also offer several delivery options for customers and patients with eligible prescriptions, including 1-2-day delivery and on-demand (same-day) delivery (within three hours), through CVS.com and the CVS Health app to provide additional convenient access to household essentials, health and wellness products, and prescription medications.” What People Are Saying Michael Ryan, a finance expert and the founder of MichaelRyanMoney.com, told Newsweek: “These chains were built for a world that no longer exists. CVS & Walgreens are poster children for this: they gorged on real estate in the ’90s and 2000s to crush competitors. But they couldn’t hedge against a double gut-punch: prescription reimbursement rates that collapsed while e-commerce players like Amazon ate their front-end profits Add in brick-and-mortar bleeding… Theft, labor costs, rent – and you’ve got a 30-year-old business model bleeding out.” Kevin Thompson, the CEO of 9i Capital Group and the host of the 9innings podcast, told Newsweek: “Retailers are being forced to get lean fast. The era of sprawling brick-and-mortar locations is fading as online competition reshapes consumer behavior and economics. Expect more hybrid setups like CVS counters inside grocery stores or shared fulfillment spaces near metro hubs as companies cut costs and rethink their physical presence.” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek: “In recent years, we’ve seen retailers who expanded their locations over the last decade starting to scale back, and the reason is some of their locations aren’t producing enough profit to justify them staying open. Retailers like CVS which once benefited from a massive number of locations are now seeing some of their stores with l...
