Kroger has announced that it will permanently close its fulfillment center on Polk Avenue in Nashville, Tennessee — a move scheduled to take effect on February 1, 2026. The decision is part of a broader restructuring of its e-commerce operations, which includes shuttering several automated and spoke facilities around the country. The closure will directly affect 132 workers at the Nashville facility, according to the official notice filed with the Tennessee Department of Labor.
These employees do not appear to have bumping rights under a collective bargaining agreement, meaning the layoffs may be permanent without guaranteed reassignments. From Kroger’s perspective, the shutdown supports a larger strategic pivot: the company is shifting away from full reliance on automated fulfillment centers and instead doubling down on a “hybrid e-commerce” model. This strategy emphasizes orders filled directly from physical stores and expands partnerships with third-party delivery services such as Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber Eats.
Kroger estimates this change will improve its e-commerce profitability by approximately $400 million in 2026. For Nashville-area customers who depended on delivery services tied to the fulfillment center, this marks a significant disruption. Kroger’s decision to scale back its automated fulfillment network reflects larger trends in the grocery industry: after an ambitious rollout of robot-powered warehouses beginning in 2018 in partnership with Ocado Group, only a fraction of the planned sites became operational — and now many are being closed.
