A developer wants to bring a new Kroger Marketplace to Butler Township, and the proposal is headed to a public zoning hearing next month even as the grocery giant rolls out a sweeping, multi-year overhaul of what its stores look like nationwide. Dayton-based Woodard Development has pitched a Kroger store at 8425 N. Dixie Drive, a project that would include a pharmacy drive-thru, a food-and-beverage drive-thru, grocery pickup spaces, a fuel station and a separate outlot reserved for future development.
The Butler Township Zoning Commission will take up the proposal at a public hearing set for 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 17 at the Butler Township Fire Department offices on Little York Road in Dayton, according to the Dayton Daily News. The request requires a zoning change before construction could move forward, and it remains unclear which of Kroger's newly unveiled store formats — if any — the Butler Township location would use.
A Company-Wide Redesign Takes Shape
The local proposal lands just as Kroger executives, during the company's 2026 Investor Update held Oct. 20 in New York City, laid out plans to debut three updated store formats and open roughly 110 new locations over the next three years, according to the Springfield News-Sun. The refreshed designs range from 50,000 to 99,000 square feet, according to Grocery Dive, which reports the three sizes are meant to match the needs of individual markets rather than apply one template everywhere.
All three formats lean into fresh food, prepared meals, private-label products and online-order fulfillment while shrinking the floor space devoted to apparel and general merchandise — categories the outlet notes do not resonate as well with shoppers. That marks a departure from Kroger's existing Marketplace stores, which run far larger, between 99,000 and 130,000 square feet, per the same Grocery Dive report. The new store concepts are part of a broader $5 billion investment Kroger is making in its stores, operations and pricing, the outlet adds.
Dollars Behind the Growth Push
Kroger is aiming for roughly 3% comparable sales growth by 2029 and expects the new stores to generate about $7 billion in annualized incremental sales once they mature, Grocery Dive reports. The company is also targeting $4 billion in annualized cost savings by 2029, according to Progressive Grocer, which notes that figure arrived alongside new investment in digital shelf labels, RFID tracking, robotics and artificial intelligence.
Not every account agrees on the exact scale of the rollout. Progressive Grocer reports Kroger plans to open approximately 110 new stores in high-return markets through 2029, while an archived report cited in industry coverage puts the number at 100 new locations by the same year — a discrepancy the company has not publicly reconciled. Either way, the expansion comes as Kroger's digital shelf-label technology is expected to grow from more than 1,000 stores today to more than 2,400 locations by 2029, according to Chain Store Age.
Pressure From a Tightening Grocery Market
The push for new formats arrives as Kroger navigates a grocery sector that grew just 1.2% in 2025, with that gain driven almost entirely by 2.2% price increases even as sales volume slipped 1.0%, according to McKinsey. The same analysis notes Kroger has already cut prices on more than 3,500 items while simplifying its promotions. Kroger's own market share has felt the squeeze: the company's U.S. packaged-goods share slipped from 8.6% to 8.3% year over year as of March 2026, per an archived industry report, leaving it ranked third nationally for packaged-goods spending behind Costco and Walmart.
Chain Store Age reports Kroger now operates approximately 2,700 stores across 35 states. In Ohio alone, the company runs 198 grocery stores across 114 cities, including 26 in Cincinnati, 16 in Columbus and six in Dayton, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Whether Butler Township's proposed Marketplace store ultimately adds to that Dayton-area count will depend on the outcome of next month's zoning hearing.
