The Kansas City area is losing two grocery stores. The owners blame theft

David Hudnall
·2 min read
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The owners of 11 Kansas City area discount grocery stores have closed one and will close another at the end of this month.

Both are Save a Lot locations: 3500 Blue Ridge Cutoff near Independence, whose last day in operation was June 20, and 6599 N. Oak Trafficway in Gladstone, which will close at the end of the month.

Value Grocers LLC vice president of operations Syed Haider wrote in a note posted on both grocery stores’ doors that the closings were the result of “ongoing theft” as well as “general business decline.”

Reached by The Star, Haider said internal and external theft at the Independence location was the primary reason for its closure.

“Theft has gone way up the past couple of years at our stores,” Haider said. “People steal meat, they steal canned goods. They take it, put it in their pocket, and walk out. And we’ve had trouble getting the police to respond.”

Independence police told The Star the department has received 14 calls for service at the store in the past year, with four reports filed: one for larceny, one for shoplifting, one for vandalism and one for trespassing. Jack Taylor, the department’s public information officer, said officers will respond to shoplifting calls if the caller has the suspect in custody.

“If no one is in custody, the desk officers at HQ will take the report over the phone and if there is any video/identifying suspect info, they will assign the case to the Investigations Unit for follow up,” Taylor said.

Gladstone police said the department had received just three calls for stealing over the past year at the Save a Lot on North Oak Trafficway. Haider said the reason for that closure had more to do with a decline in sales resulting from the end of pandemic-era boosts to federal food programs like SNAP and WIC.

“Many of our customers rely on food stamps,” Haider said. “And those customers are receiving much less now than they did a year ago.”

Value Grocers still owns nine Save a Lots in the metro area, including one at 11200 E. Truman Rd., about three miles away from the closed Independence area store, and one at 2751 Burlington St. in North Kansas City, about four miles from the soon-to-close Gladstone location. There is also an Aldi and a Walmart Supercenter within two miles of the Gladstone store, and a Walmart Supercenter two miles from the Independence location.