Grocery Chain Plans CA Expansion Following Mass Closures

Just months after closing underperforming stores around the country, discount market Grocery Outlet is expanding again in California.

In total, the NorCal-based discount market chain plans to open at least 30 new stores this year, reports said. The chain is focusing current expansion efforts mainly in Northern California.

A Grocery Outlet is opening a location in Ontario Ranch on Thursday with new stores slated for Ramona, San Francisco, Clovis and Petaluma by the end of August, KTLA reported.

The news comes after Grocery Outlet Bargain Market closed 36 stores earlier this year, nine of which were located in California.

RELATED: Grocery Chain Set To Close 9 CA Locations: See Where

The closures were a part of what stakeholders in the business called an "optimization plan."

"We identified 36 stores in the network that we concluded did not have a viable path to sustained profitability," CEO Jason Potter said on the company's quarterly earnings call in March.

Grocery Outlet has 570 stores across 16 states. Around half of its locations are located in California. Of the 36 stores that faced closures, 24 were located in the eastern part of the U.S.

This isn't the first time the bargain market has made headlines this month. News of the discount store quietly rolling out facial recognition software in at least six of its California locations surfaced in a MissionLocal report this week, drawing mixed responses from residents.

Six known Bay Area Grocery Outlet stores confirmed to be using SAFR Guard software, which uses AI technology to collect facial images from shoppers entering participating stores.

The system then compares them against a database of people identified by retailers as being suspected of theft, violence, or other activities.

RELATED: Grocery Outlet Expands Facial Recognition At Local Stores: Report

The watch list is built from surveillance footage and incident reports submitted by participating retailers. When the software detects a match, it sends an alert to store employees that a person on the watch list has entered the store.

It was not immediately known how many Grocery Outlet Bargain Market stores were implementing this technology.