Publix Says Second Kentucky Store on Tap for 2024

Months after announcing plans to open its first store in Kentucky, Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix said it's planning a second location in the Bluegrass State, this one also in Louisville.

A 55,701-square-foot Publix supermarket is expected to open at the northeast corner of Ballardsville and Brownsboro roads in Louisville sometime in the first quarter of 2024, according to a Publix news release. A 2,800-square-foot Publix Liquors also will open adjacent to the grocery store. 

"We are proud to be planting roots in Jefferson County and look forward to building lifelong relationships with our new customers," Publix CEO Todd Jones said in the news release. "With two planned stores currently in development, we are excited to continue sharing our Publix culture and commitment to service with the Bluegrass State."

Publix revealed its planned entry into Kentucky—currently dominated in grocery by Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart and Cincinnati-based Kroger—in September. The company's first Kentucky store will be located in Louisville's Terra Crossing shopping center and is tentatively slated to open its doors in late 2023.

In its home state of Florida, Publix enjoys huge market share, accounting for 63% of shoppers' grocery-store visits in September, store-traffic researcher Placer.Ai reported last month. The chain also is a winner when it comes to cross-channel shopping: In September, according to Placer.ai, "an average of 10.7% of visitors to Trader Joe's in Florida on a given day also visited Publix on that same day—but only 0.3% of Publix customers visited Trader Joe's."

Publix's announcement of its additional expansion in Kentucky comes a little more than a month after the employee-owned grocer reported higher comp sales but a dip in earnings per share in the company's third fiscal quarter. (Publix stock is available to current employees and members of the privately held company's board of directors.) Comp sales in Publix's third fiscal quarter were up 6.3% year over year, driven primarily by higher prices. That was an acceleration from the 2.3% increase in comp sales the company reported in the second quarter, but gross profit as a percentage of sales in the third quarter fell amid higher supply-chain costs.

Publix currently operates nearly 1,300 stores in seven states: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. With more than 225,000 associates, the company touts itself as the country's largest employee-owned grocery chain.