Kings Food Markets is closing its stores in Hillsdale and Whitehouse Station by January 2, 2027, a move that will eliminate 122 jobs across the two locations. The closures were disclosed in a notice filed with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development in October 2026, according to the notice.
The Hillsdale store sits at 381 Washington Ave., at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Broadway, where it has served as a full-service retail anchor in Bergen County with its own deli, bakery, meat, seafood, and catering departments, according to Kings Food Markets. In Hunterdon County, the Whitehouse Station location at 531 US Highway 22 East in Readington Township has operated since 1997. The site previously housed an A&P supermarket that had been operating for several months by January 1975, per The Market Report. Albertsons picked up that property along with 18 other active Kings locations when it acquired the chain in early 2021, the outlet notes.
As first reported by NJ.com, the closures will leave Kings with 14 New Jersey stores once the dust settles, including locations in Bedminster, Boonton, Cresskill, Florham Park, Garwood, Hoboken, Livingston, Mendham, Midland Park, Morristown, Short Hills, Summit, Upper Montclair, and Verona. Kings has already closed stores in Chatham, Maplewood, Long Hill, Hoboken, Bernardsville, Warren, and Ridgewood over recent years, per the same outlet, with earlier Chatham and Baltimore closures recorded back in June 2024 by Morristown Patch, which reported that corporate spokespersons at the time called those closures unrelated to pending merger plans.
Acme Says It Wants to Reassign Workers
Acme Markets, which owns Kings, is a subsidiary of Albertsons Companies. In a statement reported by New Jersey 101.5, Acme spokesperson Dana Ward said the grocer's goal is to place as many of the 122 impacted associates as possible into remaining Kings locations by working directly with staff and their labor unions. According to NJBiz, affected employees will also be offered jobs at other Kings locations as part of that effort.
Whatever happens with reassignment, the laid-off workers are entitled to protections under New Jersey's amended Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. The law, which took effect in April 2023, requires employers conducting mass layoffs or store closures to provide at least 90 days' advance notice and mandatory severance pay equal to one week of pay per year of service, according to Rabner Baumgart Ben-Asher & Nirenberg. That severance requirement applies regardless of how much advance notice workers receive.
A Chain Shrinking Since Its 2020 Bankruptcy
Kings Food Markets filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2020 under former parent company KB US Holdings. Kings had 25 locations, while a 27-store package included Kings and Balducci’s, according to Supermarket News. Acme Markets acquired Kings out of that bankruptcy for $96.4 million later that year. The chain traces its roots to 1936 in Summit, New Jersey, where it grew into a regional luxury supermarket operating as many as 18 upscale stores across New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, per Wikipedia.
Albertsons, Acme's parent company, has faced its own corporate turbulence in recent years. The Federal Trade Commission sued to block the proposed merger between Kroger Co. and Albertsons, arguing that it would harm local grocery competition, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Changes in the North Jersey Grocery Market
The Kings closures are another change in the North Jersey grocery market.
The job losses at Kings also arrive amid a broader wave of New Jersey layoff filings in early October 2026. Dr. Praeger's Sensible Foods is shuttering its founding Elmwood Park facility with 168 job cuts, and Novo Nordisk is eliminating more than 100 positions in Plainsboro, according to New Jersey 101.5. New Jersey had more WARN filings in the most recent quarter than in the prior quarter, with layoffs reported in several industries.
