Harris Teeter to lay off 91 Fairfax County employees

North Carolina-based supermarket chain Harris Teeter will permanently close a fulfillment center in Fairfax County on Feb. 1, 2026, resulting in layoffs of 91 employees.

Harris Teeter notified the state of the closure and layoffs on Tuesday, in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. In the letter, the company’s vice president of human resources, Martha Taylor, said that the closure of the site at 6306 Gravel Ave. in Franconia is expected to be permanent and that Harris Teeter’s delivery operations from that facility may begin to wind down in early to mid-January 2026.

“After thorough evaluation and strategic review, we made the difficult decision to close the Virginia facility that supported HT Delivery,” the company said in a statement to Virginia Business.

The facility is located within Fleet Industrial Park, a 489,372-square-foot business park consisting of eight industrial warehouse buildings.

While the company did not directly address the factors that led to the decision to close the Franconia site, its statement indicated that it was related to shifting away from company-based delivery to third-party providers.

“Harris Teeter customers can continue to enjoy delivery through our well-established third-party delivery providers, with the same access to their favorite products and the personalized offers and savings they expect from Harris Teeter,” the statement read.

According to Taylor, affected employees will remain employed through Feb. 1 and will receive pay and benefits as usual during that time. Impacted employees do not have bumping rights and are not represented by a union, she added.

The vast majority of the laid-off employees, 68, are customer service delivery drivers. Other positions include marshallers, dispatchers, coordinators and a transportation manager.

The company declined to comment further.

Founded in 1939 and headquartered in Matthews, North Carolina, Harris Teeter employs 36,000 people across more than 250 stores and 85 fuel centers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, Delaware, Florida and Washington, D.C. In 2013, the chain was acquired by The Kroger Co.

In June, during an earnings call, Kroger announced plans to shutter approximately 60 underperforming stores over the next 18 months. Numerous media outlets reported that same month that Harris Teeter was closing four locations in the D.C. area, including two in Arlington and one in Tysons, as part of this larger national effort.

“We’re simplifying our business and reviewing areas that will not be meaningful to our future growth,” Kroger Chairman and interim CEO Ronald Sargent said during the earnings call. “Unfortunately, today, not all of our stores are delivering the sustainable results we need.”