Yes, too keep up with inflation. We don't have inflation now. We are all now forced to pay an extra tax so that some fucking assholes move their butt to go to work? We have to stop turning everyone into some lazy, selfish, couch potatoes. They should keep the store open but raise prices of all items in those areas by 5 or 10%. They obviously did the math and it did not work out. But of course you have more insight into Kroger's internals than their specialists. Lol.
Perhaps. Or perhaps Kroger has a different operating model than the other dozen grocery stores. Or perhaps the other grocery stores cannot relocate because they aren't chains - which means consumers will suffer for brand choice availability (as chains bring a much better selection than non-chain grocers) as well as higher prices (because chains charge consumers lower prices than non-chains). Please remember that I spent almost 30 years in the food and pharma CPG business, and our primary customers were grocery chains. I know a lot about that business. So really what you have is a local ordinance penalizing local shoppers, at the end of the day.
This gets into another question... sometimes the presence of local competition (which divides the local grocery market) is in itself enough to cause the demise of a grocery store in the neighborhood. The additional $4 in pay is just the addition which broke the camel's back and made the chain decide to close the stores. I will use the demise of Piggly Wiggly in the five points area of downtown Raleigh that occurred a long time ago as an example. For a long time they were the only grocery store in the neighborhood. The chain generally appeals to limited income shoppers in recent decades. However when multiple grocery stores opened in the same neighborhood, it only took about five years for the Piggly Wiggly to close. I will note that Piggly Wiggly was never known for being efficient or having the best selection of food items -- so when other options were available the shoppers moved on.