Your recent decision to close 14 stores in the Raleigh-Durham area has made over 1,500 families in our community exceptionally stressed and uncertain about their futures.

As a concerned citizen and as a customer, I’ve heard their concerns firsthand and am writing to urge you to do the right thing. Please use your power as the seller of these stores to ensure any of your employees facing displacement from these transactions can continue their careers and keep working in the locations they know and love.

Given that most of these 14 stores will soon become Harris Teeter Supermarkets, which you own, this shouldn’t be a difficult task.

I know from personal shopping experience that the Kroger stores you’ve chosen to close and sell are filled with dedicated and talented employees. Allowing them to continue with their careers inside stores they’re already familiar with would be the smart and logical thing to do. Most importantly, it would bring over a thousand families in our community some much-needed and deserved certainty about their futures.

Our community has always viewed Kroger as a good employer that provides people with good careers. I urge you to keep that image intact and insist that any of your stores in the Raleigh-Durham area being sold to grocery operators make a meaningful effort to hire the talented people who currently work inside them. It’s simply the right thing to do.

Sincerely,

A concerned citizen