Independent grocery stores across the U.S. continue to face pressure from inflation, labor costs and shifting shopping habits. In California’s Central Valley, that strain is now ending the nearly 50-year run of O’Brien’s Market, a longtime family-owned chain based in Modesto. The company’s final two stores are set to close, bringing the local grocer’s store count to zero.
O’Brien’s Market is closing its last two stores in Modesto
O’Brien’s Market, founded in 1978, is closing its two remaining locations in Modesto, according to local reporting by The Modesto Bee and follow-up coverage summarized by NewsBreak. The stores are at 4120 Dale Road and 839 West Roseburg Avenue, which have been the company’s final operating locations since O’Brien’s sold its Riverbank store in 2024. The Modesto Bee’s Biz Beat index shows a July 28, 2026 report on the looming closure, while NewsBreak reported that both stores are scheduled to shut down in late September.
The Roseburg Square store on West Roseburg Avenue is expected to close on September 26, and the Dale Road store is expected to close on September 27, according to the NewsBreak report. The same report said the closures could affect about 117 workers across the two stores. That includes 50 employees tied to the Roseburg Avenue location and 67 tied to the Dale Road store.
Those two stores represent the entire remaining footprint of the chain in California. O’Brien’s previously operated a Riverbank location, but The Modesto Bee reported that store was sold to Cost Less Food Company and officially closed as an O’Brien’s on July 7, 2024. At that time, the company’s two Modesto stores remained open, making the current decision the final step in the chain’s wind-down.
Modesto will absorb the full local impact, with details still limited
The closure is concentrated entirely in Modesto, where O’Brien’s has maintained its last two stores. The affected sites are the Dale Road store in north Modesto and the Roseburg Square location on West Roseburg Avenue. Past local coverage from The Modesto Bee also identified those stores as community shopping anchors, and earlier reporting listed both addresses in routine local business and holiday-hours coverage.
What is confirmed is that Modesto is losing both remaining O’Brien’s supermarkets. What is not yet publicly clear is whether every department and service inside each store will wind down on the same timetable or whether any assets will be transferred before the final shutdown dates. NewsBreak reported that the company has explored a possible sale of the Roseburg Avenue store, but no final agreement had been reached at the time of that report.
The company also has not released a broader public list of next-step details for customers beyond the reported closure dates. There is no indication from the available reporting that any other California cities remain in O’Brien’s operating network. Because the Riverbank store was sold in 2024, Modesto is the only city confirmed to be affected by the final store closures.
Retirement, pandemic aftereffects and a hard grocery market drove the decision
The reasons cited for the closure reflect a mix of company-specific and industry-wide pressures. NewsBreak reported that O’Brien’s attributed the move to a difficult business climate and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The same report said founder Chuck O’Brien is retiring, making leadership transition part of the context behind the shutdown.
Earlier reporting from The Modesto Bee documented that O’Brien’s had already been shrinking. The sale of the Riverbank location in July 2024 reduced the chain from three stores to two, leaving the Modesto locations as its entire operation. That earlier sale did not end the business, but it showed the company was already contracting before this final closure decision surfaced in 2026.
For shoppers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: the O’Brien’s name is expected to disappear from California retail after the late-September closures unless a last-minute transaction changes one site’s future. For employees, the confirmed impact is the reported loss of about 117 jobs across the two Modesto stores. As of the latest public reporting, O’Brien’s has not announced a new expansion plan or replacement format, meaning the expected outcome is the end of the chain’s nearly five-decade run in the Central Valley.