What Grocery Stores Are Open on New Year’s Day? Major Chains and Holiday Hours

Most major grocery chains stay open on New Year’s Day, but the holiday schedule is far from uniform. Some stores run their normal hours, others close early, and a handful of familiar names shut their doors completely. Here’s what the most recently verified New Year’s Day schedules show, which chains to skip, and how to confirm your own store before you leave the house.

New Year’s Day is a federal holiday, which means government offices, banks, and the post office close. That designation doesn’t extend to private grocery chains, though. Each retailer sets its own holiday calendar, which is exactly why the answer to “is my grocery store open” depends on which store you’re asking about.

A quick note on dates: the most recently confirmed holiday-hours data available covers January 1, 2026. January 1, 2027 falls on a Friday, and individual chains typically don’t publish next year’s holiday schedule until shortly before the date. The patterns below are a strong guide, but if you’re shopping on January 1, 2027, it’s worth a quick check of the specific store before you go.

Are Grocery Stores Open on New Year’s Day?

Yes, most national grocery chains operate on New Year’s Day, though a good number trim their hours and a few close entirely. Kroger and its family of stores typically run on regular hours. Whole Foods, Albertsons, Safeway, and Wegmans usually open but with shortened or modified schedules. Publix stays open but tends to close several hours earlier than usual. Meanwhile, Costco, Sam’s Club, Aldi, and Trader Joe’s have consistently closed for the full day.

That split between “open,” “open but earlier than usual,” and “closed” is the most useful way to think about this holiday, and it’s the structure the rest of this article follows.

Grocery Chains Open on New Year’s Day

The Kroger family covers more banners than the name suggests, including Ralphs, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Harris Teeter, Smith’s, QFC, Dillons, and Mariano’s, among others. If your local supermarket carries one of those names, it generally follows the same open, regular-hours pattern as Kroger itself.

Walmart tends to be one of the most dependable options on this list. Recent reporting put its New Year’s Day hours at roughly 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. at most stores, which makes it a reasonable backup even if your usual grocery store has reduced hours or is closed.

Chains That Cut Their Hours Short

Being “open” doesn’t always mean a store runs its full normal schedule. A few chains are worth double-checking specifically because they tend to close earlier than shoppers expect.

Publix is the clearest example. Locations generally stay open on New Year’s Day itself, but many close in the early evening, commonly somewhere between 7 and 8 p.m. depending on the store. If you’re planning an after-dinner run, that’s the chain most likely to catch you off guard.

Whole Foods Market also runs on modified hours at many locations rather than its typical full-day schedule. The company’s own holiday-hours page tells shoppers to check their specific store, which is a fair signal that a single national time frame doesn’t apply everywhere.

Albertsons and Safeway, which share the same parent company, don’t publish one uniform holiday schedule either. Some locations run close to normal hours; others trim them. Since both chains operate a wide range of regional banners, checking the exact store matters more here than with a chain that keeps one consistent hour block nationwide.

Grocery and Warehouse Chains Closed on New Year’s Day

These are the closures that catch people out most often, mainly because the stores are open on almost every other day of the year.

• Costco: Closed on New Year’s Day. Costco closes completely on seven holidays a year, and January 1 is one of them.
• Sam’s Club: Closed on New Year’s Day. Sam’s Club also closes early the evening before, typically around 6 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.
• Aldi: Closed on New Year’s Day. Aldi closes early on New Year’s Eve and stays shut for the full holiday.
• Trader Joe’s: Closed on New Year’s Day. It’s one of only three days a year Trader Joe’s closes completely, alongside Thanksgiving and Christmas.

If your regular shopping trip usually includes one of these four, plan to buy what you need before December 31, or have a backup chain in mind from the open list above.

Regional Chains Worth Checking

National coverage only goes so far, since where you live often matters more than which chain you’re picturing. A few regional names come up often enough in New Year’s Day searches to call out directly.

• Meijer, common across the Midwest, has generally stayed open on New Year’s Day with hours close to its usual schedule.
• Food Lion, widely found in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, typically keeps regular hours on the holiday, with its pharmacy more likely to follow a separate schedule.
• H-E-B, the dominant Texas grocery chain, has generally remained open on January 1, though individual store hours can shift by location.
• Stop & Shop, common in the Northeast, usually stays open with hours that can vary store to store.

None of these carry one guaranteed national time slot, which is exactly why the verification steps below matter as much for a regional favorite as for a major national chain.

Grocery Stores Versus Warehouse Clubs

Costco and Sam’s Club get grouped with grocery stores constantly, but they’re technically warehouse clubs, which changes how they treat holidays. A standard supermarket chain is generally trying to stay open for daily household shopping, even on a slower schedule. A warehouse club’s business model leans more on bulk trips and planned visits, which makes a full-day closure a smaller disruption to how most members actually shop there. That’s a big part of why Costco and Sam’s Club close completely while most traditional supermarkets stay open in some form.

How to Check Your Local Store’s Hours

National patterns are a useful starting point, but they’re not a guarantee for your specific store. Four steps get you a real answer:

1. Go to the grocery chain’s official website or app.
2. Use the store locator and enter your ZIP code or city.
3. Open your specific store’s page and look for its listed hours.
4. Check for a holiday-hours notice, since regular hours and January 1 hours aren’t always the same.

Two details are easy to miss if you stop at step three. First, a store’s pharmacy often runs on a separate schedule from the rest of the building, and many in-store pharmacies close for the holiday even when the grocery side stays open. Second, pickup and delivery windows can differ from in-store hours, so if you’re ordering online, check that service’s own time slots rather than assuming they match the store.

If Your Usual Store Is Closed

A closed or early-closing store doesn’t have to end the trip. A few practical options:

• Try a nearby chain from the open list, since coverage overlaps in most areas.
• Check Walmart or Target if you mainly need household basics along with groceries.
• Look at regional or independent supermarkets near you, which often keep standard hours on federal holidays.
• Use grocery delivery or pickup if your usual store offers it and the time slots work for the holiday.
• For anything you can’t risk running out of, buy it on December 31 instead of counting on January 1.

What to Know Before You Go

• Holiday hours can differ from a store’s everyday schedule, even at chains that are technically “open.”
• Some locations close several hours earlier than usual, Publix being the most common example.
• Pharmacy hours are frequently separate from grocery hours and may not follow the same holiday pattern.
• Pickup and delivery time slots can differ from in-store hours at the same location.
• A store’s official website is more reliable than a general holiday-hours article once the actual date arrives.
• Confirming the exact location takes a minute and saves a wasted trip.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Walmart open on New Year’s Day?

Yes. Walmart has been open on New Year’s Day with most locations running close to normal hours, though it’s still worth confirming your specific store.

Is Kroger open on New Year’s Day?

Yes. Most Kroger family stores, including banners like Ralphs, Fred Meyer, and King Soopers, run regular hours, with some variation by location.

Is Costco open on New Year’s Day?

No. Costco closes completely on New Year’s Day as one of its seven annual holiday closures.

Is Aldi open on New Year’s Day?

No. Aldi closes for the full day on January 1 after shortening its hours the evening before.

Is Trader Joe’s open on New Year’s Day?

No. Trader Joe’s is closed on New Year’s Day, one of only three full-day closures it observes each year.

Do grocery-store pharmacies keep the same hours as the store?

Not always. In-store pharmacies frequently run their own holiday schedule and can be closed even when the rest of the store is open.

Before You Head Out

The fastest way to avoid a wasted trip is checking your exact store rather than relying on a general list. If your usual chain is one of the reliably open ones, like Kroger or Walmart, a quick hours check is still worth it. If it’s one of the ones known for closing completely, like Costco, Aldi, or Trader Joe’s, plan around that ahead of time rather than finding out at the door.