Some bad news for NoPa residents who rely on the Lucky supermarket for their groceries: The store is closing later this year because it is not financial viable, parent company Save Mart says.

Workers at the Lucky supermarket at 1750 Fulton Street (at Masonic) were given notice this week that the store will be closing permanently on September 11. The Chronicle had the news Thursday, and it's more bad news for the grocery landscape in San Francisco generally, following last year's closure of the Fillmore Safeway store, which was an anchor in that neighborhood.

This also represents the loss of one of the city's least expensive grocery options, in a city where the same 12 items can vary wildly in price — and cost twice as much whether you're shopping at Trader Joe's or Bi-Rite. The Chronicle's most recent survey of grocery prices around the city found Lucky to be second only to Trader Joe's in selling the least expensive options for a dozen basic products, including extra-virgin olive oil, ground beef, eggs, rice, and coffee.

After the Fulton Street Lucky store closes, that will leave only one other Lucky location in the city, at 1515 Sloat Boulevard.

An executive at Save Mart Supermarkets informed the 48 employees at the store that it had become financially unviable.

"Closing a store is not a decision we take lightly, but this store has had performance issues for an extended period of time," said Phil Keene, senior director of communications and government affairs for Save Mart, per the Chronicle. "We have worked to enhance and remodel the location, but it has not shown the sales and profit needed to continue operations."

Safeway similarly cited financial viability issues, and shoplifting woes, in closing its Webster Street store last year. Members of the community and the Board of Supervisors tried to push back to keep the store open, given that it was a lifeline for elderly residents of the Fillmore and Japantown, in particular, to no avail.

The Fulton Street Lucky location, at the shopping center known as Fulton Market, was formerly an Albertsons (the parent company of Safeway) until 2014. This brand change happened after Save Mart Supermarkets acquired a group of Albertsons stores in Northern California.

Given that there is no redevelopment plan for the Fulton Street property that we're aware of — as there is with the Fillmore Safeway site — it seems possible that another chain may want to take over this store once Lucky closes.

Just up Masonic Avenue a few blocks, Asian-Canadian grocery chain T&T Supermarkets is opening a big new location soon in the former Best Buy, at the Target-anchored City Center complex. As of last spring, T&T said it was aiming for a "winter 2026" opening, but we have not had an update since.