San Ramon residents are set to have one fewer grocery store available, which a neighborhood advocacy group worries is part of a long-sounding death knell for a local shopping center.

Management at Nob Hill Foods announced last month that the company would be closing its San Ramon and Walnut Creek locations early in March.

"We proudly served these communities for more than two decades. However, the past few years have brought significant challenges, and with changing economic conditions and high market rent, the sales simply cannot support continued operation of the store," said Chelsea Minor, director of public affairs at the two stores' parent company, Raley's.

Don Routh, a member of the neighborhood group Citizens Against Marketplace Development (CAMPAD), said that while the announcement was disappointing, it was not a surprise to himself or others who had been tracking and opposing proposed developments at the Marketplace Shopping Center.

"The community is rallying behind Raley's and Nob Hill, they're not blaming them; they understand it's a business and they have to have a commercially viable business, but the foot traffic in the shopping center has declined significantly over the years," said Routh, a resident of the neighborhood near the Marketplace at Alcosta Boulevard and Bollinger Canyon Road that currently houses the grocery store.

Minor said that the company had been on month-to-month leases for both the San Ramon and Walnut Creek stores for more than a year, after the original leases were up, but that the closure decision was based on the unique circumstances brought on by the pandemic, rather than a sustainable long-term business strategy.

"We went to month-to-month leases to continue to serve the community through the pandemic," Minor said, noting that the property owner of the San Ramon location also has plans to redevelop a portion of the property with residential.

Housing for the area has been the subject of an ongoing debate between the owners and developers of the property TRC Retail, and CAMPAD and city officials. Although CAMPAD scored a victory when the developer decided not to move forward with a proposed five-story, 284 unit housing development at the property presently housing the shopping center, which the group had strongly opposed, Routh said that he and others remain concerned about the continued plans to demolish the shopping area to make way for housing.

"The local community feels really strongly that we need to have a local shopping area where there's a UPS Store and a grocery store, and a Chinese restaurant and things like that that aren't going to be over at City Center," Routh said. "Especially the grocery store. As we all know, having gone through this pandemic the past two years, groceries are an essential service."

With the closure of Nob Hill Foods, the options for grocery shopping in San Ramon will be limited to Safeway, Lucky, Target and Walmart Neighborhood Market, along with some specialty grocers such as Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and outposts for regional foods, such as an Indian supermarket and European grocer.

Routh said that he was concerned at the overcrowding this might present in crowded stores with narrow aisles, such as Safeway, along with traffic, as residents who previously shopped at Nob Hill, along with the city's ever-growing population, flock to a smaller number of stores for essential goods.

While Routh emphasized that his work with CAMPAD was for the sake of the community in general rather than personal reasons, the closure of Nob Hill Foods also has an impact on Routh personally, given his son's longtime position as a clerk at the store.

"It certainly is an unfortunate situation for him, although we're very fortunate that Raley's/Nob Hill is providing Josh with an opportunity at the Raley's in Pleasanton," Routh said.

For this reason and others, he said he and his wife, along with some other loyal customers, would soon be driving to the Pleasanton location for their shopping. But although Josh Routh and other employees who are being transferred to the Pleasanton location are lucky to have continued employment, loss of their positions at Nob Hill still comes with costs, such as longer commute times, and the loss of union benefits if they're transferred to a non-unionized store such as the one in Pleasanton.

The San Ramon store is set to close on March 12, a week after the Walnut Creek location on March 5.

"We are working with union leadership to minimize the impact on our team members and offer them comparable roles at other locations," Minor said. "We want to thank our loyal customers for their support and look forward to serving you at a nearby location."

Routh said that he and CAMPAD would continue to oppose what they consider to be irresponsible development in the area, and that their ultimate goal would be to see the shopping center revitalized.

"Our goal is to not only prevent irresponsible housing from going in there, but to somehow or other get the city and TRC to enhance that shopping center back to a vibrant dining and shopping opportunity for us in the community," Routh said.