CANAL WINCHESTER, Ohio — The wait for a new Kroger ended for Canal Winchester shoppers on Friday, Nov. 13, when the grocery chain opened a 122,000-square-foot store at 8200 Diley Road, a $35 million project that will employ 230 people, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The store, under construction for roughly a year, opened with a 7:30 a.m. ribbon cutting and launched a full weekend of giveaways and events, according to a Kroger media release reported by The Columbus Dispatch. Santa Claus was scheduled to be on site from 10 a.m. to noon on Nov. 13 and 14, and the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile was set to be on the premises Nov. 13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the release said.
The opening-weekend offers continue Saturday, Nov. 14, when the first 200 customers entering the store at 8 a.m. will receive coupons for a free Kroger-brand breakfast item, including orange juice, eggs, sausage and English muffins, with the coupon valid through Nov. 24, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Drivers get a break as well: from Nov. 13 through Nov. 27, Kroger Plus members will receive 20 cents off per gallon at the new store’s fuel center, according to the company’s release. The fuel offer lands the same week Ohio drivers are seeing some of the lowest pump prices of the fall — NewsForce247 reported earlier Friday that some Ohio fuel has dipped below $3 a gallon ahead of Thanksgiving travel.
The Canal Winchester store is Kroger’s fourth new store in the central Ohio area since 2024, The Columbus Dispatch reported. It follows the Jerome Village Kroger Marketplace, which opened in Plain City in 2024, the Home Road Marketplace in Powell in 2025, and a new Delaware location that opened Oct. 2.
The openings are part of a broader building push. Many other Kroger stores in the region have had grand reopenings after extensive renovations, part of the $97 million total investment in central and northwest Ohio that the company announced in 2024, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
For Canal Winchester, the new store anchors the fast-growing Diley Road corridor on the city’s southeast side, where subdivisions have been adding rooftops for years and residents have long driven to other communities for a full-service grocery run. A 230-employee store also puts one of the area’s larger retail employers inside the city limits.
The store’s arrival continues a busy stretch for central Ohio retail development. NewsForce247 reported earlier this month that a national EV car-sharing service has made its first Midwest launch in the Columbus area, another sign of the region’s growth drawing new investment.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: The store is open, the weekend event schedule and the fuel-center discount are set, and the 230-job figure comes from Kroger’s own release, reported by The Columbus Dispatch. Still unannounced are any additional phases for the Diley Road site and whether the opening shifts hours or staffing at the chain’s other southeast-side locations.
What happens next is the opening weekend itself: the breakfast-item coupon giveaway begins at 8 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, Santa returns from 10 a.m. to noon, and the 20-cents-off fuel offer for Plus members runs through Nov. 27.
Photo: pasa47, CC BY