Connecticut ShopRite blames closing on minimum wage hike, regulations
FBN's Robert Gray on the impact of minimum wage hikes on small businesses.
A Connecticut supermarket will be closing in late November amidst a “challenging business climate” as the state’s upcoming minimum wage hikes will leave the location unprofitable, store executives said.
The West Hartford ShopRite on Kane Street is set to close its doors for good on Nov. 26 ahead of the Thanksgiving shopping rush, parent company Wakefern Food Corp. announced in a statement on Sunday.
“After nearly a decade of serving the West Hartford community, ShopRite has decided it will close its doors,” the statement read. “In spite of our competitive pricing, large assortment of foods and products, and excellent service provided by our dedicated associates, we have struggled to make the store profitable. A challenging business climate impacted by rising costs, regulations and the new minimum wage increase led to the difficult decision to close our doors on Nov. 26.”
On Tuesday, Connecticut’s minimum wage will increase from $10.10 an hour to $11 an hour following a vote several months ago to steadily raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2023.
Harvard Business School economists studied restaurant closures in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2017, and determined that a $1 bump in the minimum wage increased the likelihood of a restaurant closing by 10 percent.
Like Connecticut, California is raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022, which according to Forbes, will cause an estimated 400,000 jobs to be cut.
November’s closure of the West Hartford location will mark the end of a nine-year run beginning in 2010, when ShopRite took over the former Shaw’s location.
The ShopRite closure is a one-off at the moment, with no other closures planned for Connecticut locations on the horizon, a Wakefern Food Corp. spokeswoman said.
She also cited rising food costs and regulations as reasons for the store’s closure, outside of the minimum wage hike.