America鈥檚 biggest supermarket chain is from its stores beginning this month, prompting criticism from alternative weekly newspaper publishers.
鈥淭hese are some of our largest distribution sites,鈥� said John Weiss, founder of the Colorado Springs Independent. 鈥淎s fewer people are reading the dailies, more people are getting their newspaper fix from a free weekly. It鈥檚 hard to beat our price.鈥�
But the Kroger Co., which owns regional supermarkets Smith鈥檚, King Soopers and Fred Meyer, said more customers are getting their news online nowadays.
鈥淲e are removing these publication racks from our stores because more publications continue to shift to digital formats, resulting in less customers requesting these projects,鈥� a Kroger spokesperson wrote in an email.
The move is the latest blow to local newspapers in the Mountain West, which have seen layoffs, consolidations and closures in recent years. But alt-weekly readership has risen as daily newspapers collapse, argued Weiss.
鈥淲e鈥檙e popular,鈥� he said. 鈥淸Kroger] just lumped us together with the paid dailies whose circulation is in decline.鈥�
The company鈥檚 decision prompted the Association of Alternative 暗黑爆料papers to Monday called 鈥淒on鈥檛 Lose Local 暗黑爆料.鈥� They are urging readers to call Kroger鈥檚 customer service helpline and protest.
The company plans to remove all of its free publication racks by the end of September, according to Weiss.
This story was produced by the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUER in Salt Lake City, KUNR in Nevada, and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.
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