The New Citrus Heights Grocery Outlet located in Sunrise Village looks to hire employees before April 2 grand opening. Photo by Thomas J. Sullivan

CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) – The April 2 opening of a new Grocery Outlet store in the Sunrise Village in Citrus Heights comes as welcome news to employees of nearby Amazon Fresh who will be out of work when their store closes to the public on March 13.

Grocery Outlet is accepting applications and resumes for positions at its south Citrus Heights store at 5409 Sunrise Blvd. The franchisees will host an in-person job fair on Thursday, Feb. 26, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in front of the store, inviting applicants who have submitted their resumes to learn more about available openings.

Amazon is officially closing its Amazon Fresh supermarket in the Sunrise Village Shopping Center in Citrus Heights which opened a year and a half ago.

The tech and retail giant publicly announced plans to close all of 60 Amazon Fresh grocery stores in the United States, including its Citrus Heights location, "to prioritize investment in growth areas," in a company blog post on Tuesday, Jan. 27. Three Amazon Fresh supermarkets were located in Northern California. 

Once open, the new Grocery Outlet will face competition from two other nearby retail grocers, Smart and Final and a Trader Joes located on opposite sides of the busy Sunrise Boulevard and Madison Avenue corner.

Tilton Pacific Construction, Inc., of Rocklin has overseen the interior and exterior renovation of the former Rite Aid drug store in recent months. A new sidewalk has been added in front of the store, and the overall parking area has been refreshed and restriped.

The white stucco front façade of the new Grocery Outlet has also been refreshed with new paint and marquee signage above the center front retail entrance.

News of the upcoming grand opening was announced on its local social media accounts.

Inside, work crews have removed the existing interior ceiling to its bare structure, which was necessary to meet the higher shelving and storage height which Grocery Outlet requires in its retail stores. Store shelving and front checkout counters are in place, while inventory has yet to arrive.

Multiple Amazon employees said they were aware of Grocery Outlet at the opposite end of the Sunrise Village Plaza now hiring, and said they intended to promptly submit their employment applications.

It remains unclear whether any of the Sacramento’s region’s existing Amazon Fresh stores, including Citrus Heights, might be converted in the future to a Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon.

Sunrise Village Plaza at the corner of Madison Avenue and Sunrise Boulevard in Citrus Heights is owned by the San Francisco-based Merlone-Geier investment company. The center has undergone a $15-to-20 million remodeling and expansion project, which included new landscaping and upgraded signage.

Each Grocery Outlet franchise location is individually owned and operated.