Cincinnati pilot could reveal whether the American supermarket is ready to trade around the clock again
Kroger is quietly reopening a question that many supermarket operators thought had already been answered: does the traditional 24-hour grocery store still have a place in modern retail?
The US supermarket giant is testing 24-hour opening at its Tylersville store in Cincinnati, Ohio, in what Kroger describes as a small pilot. The company says it is looking at more ways to give customers fast and convenient ways to shop, both in stores and online. At this stage, Kroger has not indicated whether the experiment will be extended to other locations.
For the supermarket industry, however, this is more interesting than simply one Cincinnati store staying open through the night. It could be another sign that retailers are reconsidering the relationship between opening hours and modern consumer behaviour.
The UK has already provided plenty of experience with 24-hour supermarket trading. Tesco, Asda and other major retailers have operated stores around the clock, particularly at larger formats and in locations where overnight demand justified the additional operation. But Britain has also shown the other side of the equation. Tesco reduced 24-hour opening at a number of stores when it found that overnight customer numbers did not always justify the operating model, while the pandemic accelerated changes to supermarket opening patterns.
That makes Kroger’s experiment particularly worth watching.
ISN will be following what happens next. If Kroger decides that the Cincinnati pilot is successful and begins extending 24-hour trading to more stores across the US, it could provide a valuable indication of whether the economics of overnight grocery retail are changing.
The consumer has changed. People work different hours, shop later, travel at different times and increasingly expect retail to be available when it suits them rather than when the traditional retail timetable says it should be available.
But there is another side to the equation. Keeping a large supermarket open at 3am is not simply a question of leaving the lights on. Staffing, security, replenishment, energy consumption and the number of transactions generated during those hours all have to make commercial sense.
This is where the Kroger test becomes interesting. The retailer is effectively putting the 24-hour supermarket model back on the laboratory bench.
For ISN, the bigger question is not whether one Cincinnati store can attract customers overnight. It is whether Kroger discovers a new reason for supermarkets to stay open when most of their competitors are closed.
If that happens, the impact could extend well beyond Cincinnati.
The supermarket of the future may not necessarily be the one with the biggest store or the widest range. It could increasingly be the retailer that is simply there when the customer decides to shop.
Kroger has opened the door. Now the industry will be watching to see whether it keeps it open.
