A post from Clarín on Facebook announced the closure of a supermarket, but located in California and due to the retirement of its founder and issues arising from the pandemic
In recent hours, a news published on Facebook by the newspaper Clarín has gone viral. With a title designed exclusively as bait for the anti-Milei militant audience —"Historic supermarket chain closes after 49 years, leaving 117 employees without jobs"— the media attempted to establish a supposed economic crisis at the national level
However, the deception crumbles when analyzing the details: the information systematically concealed that the company in question is a family-owned firm based in the Central Valley of California, United States, completely unrelated to the economic reality of our country.
Clarín on Facebook
Going to the specific facts that the press tried to distort, the affected company is O'Brien's Market, an American family chain founded by Chuck O'Brien. After 49 years in the sector, the closure coincides with the retirement of its founder. Chuck O'Brien began his career as a teenager in high school and managed to buy his first establishment in 1978.
Over nearly five decades, the firm expanded its operations to the towns of Modesto, Riverbank, and Keyes, becoming a traditional neighborhood store. His family stated when announcing the founder's retirement that “Chuck made his dream in the supermarket business and much more a reality”.
Far from responding to a local situation, the collapse of the company is due to global and structural dynamics of the state of California.
The management of O'Brien's Market itself acknowledged that the commercial debacle originated from the pandemic of 2020, from which they never managed to recover due to its transformations and health regulations. In their official statement, the family admitted that the health emergency forced them to implement unprecedented changes and that “we never fully recovered”.
O'Brien's Market
They also pointed out that “the current business climate has forced us to make some difficult decisions”, which led to the painful liquidation of their assets.
The situation of the staff and the establishments shows a planned corporate process that has nothing to do with the Argentina of Javier Milei. Currently, the company has only two locations in Modesto, after having sold its Riverbank branch in 2024 to the firm Cost Less Food Company for a confidential amount.
The closure schedule details that the store at 4120 Dale Road will close its doors on September 20. This will affect 67 workers —including butchers, baristas, cashiers, deli staff, management assistants, and produce staff— whose contracts will end on September 27, according to the official notifications submitted to the labor authorities of California.
For its part, the second supermarket, located at 839 W. Roseburg Avenue, is desperately seeking a buyer to maintain its operations. If a definitive agreement is not reached, this location will close its doors around September 26, leaving another 50 employees without their jobs. The company hopes that a buyer will retain the workers without interruptions, but for now, everything is uncertain in the American Central Valley.
Clarín Lies
To make matters worse for the narrative of Clarín, the case of O'Brien's Market is not an isolated phenomenon, but part of a structural crisis affecting retail under the democratic regulatory model in California.
A survey by the consulting firm TheStreet revealed that at least 49 supermarkets announced or completed closures in that American state during the year 2026, destroying or putting at risk more than 4,600 jobs.
According to analysts, the retail sector on the U.S. West Coast has historically operated with reduced margins and faces severe increases in operating costs, drastic changes in consumer habits, and fierce competition from discount multinationals and online sales platforms. The reality of the facts categorically debunks the crude maneuver of Clarín, demonstrating once again that the media opposition must resort to bankruptcies in the northern hemisphere to try to invent a non-existent economic crisis under the successful management of President Javier Milei
