OXXO Closes 140 Mexico Stores as FEMSA Expands Its Bara Discount Chain
FEMSA closed 140 OXXO stores in Mexico in the third quarter and plans about 250 by December, while its Bara discount chain grew to 898 stores.
FEMSA, the Monterrey group that owns OXXO, closed 140 OXXO convenience stores in Mexico between July and September, according to its third-quarter 2026 financial report cited by Expansión. The company calls it a portfolio optimization program, and it expects the closures to reach about 250 stores between July and December 2026.
OXXO is still growing overall. It opened 191 stores in the same quarter, a net gain of 51, and ended September with 24,759 locations in Mexico. The group’s pharmacies, gas stations and European stores also shrank, while its Bara discount chain kept adding branches at a fast pace to compete with Tiendas 3B. For other grocery options in the capital, see supermarkets in Mexico City compared.
OXXO’s quarter in figures
- 140 OXXO stores closed in Mexico from July to September, with 191 opened.
- 24,759 OXXO stores in Mexico at the end of September.
- 272 closures and 734 openings in the first nine months of the year, for net growth of 462 stores.
- 0.20% of OXXO Mexico’s operating profit went to closure-related costs, according to the company.
- 8% is how much the segment’s operating profit would have grown in the quarter without those costs. The reported figure was 5.8%.
Pharmacies and OXXO Gas stations also shrink
FEMSA’s health division, which runs its pharmacy businesses, closed 15 locations in the quarter and finished September with 4,569. The drop was sharper in Mexico, where the count fell from 1,315 pharmacies a year earlier to 1,259, a 4.3% decline.
The company said part of the reshuffle comes from other countries. It is gradually leaving its institutional medicine dispensing business in Colombia after its contract with EPS Sanitas ended, and it adjusted its network in Chile because of stiffer competition.
The fuel business, OXXO Gas, ended September with 772 stations, nine fewer than the previous quarter. Of those, 544 are in Mexico and 228 in the United States. Net closures reached 18 stations in the first nine months of 2026 and 26 over the past 12 months. FEMSA said fuel margins were also squeezed by higher input costs and by the voluntary maximum price commitments adopted in Mexico.
In Europe, where FEMSA operates the convenience and food retailer Valora, the network went from 2,772 to 2,762 locations year over year, a 0.4% drop. The company blamed part of the trouble in Germany on bad weather, rail disruptions and lower business-to-business sales.
Bara adds stores in the race with Tiendas 3B
Bara, FEMSA’s discount grocery format, added 112 net stores in the third quarter and reached 898 at the end of September, up 56.7% from a year earlier. Over the past 12 months it added 325 net stores, Expansión reported.
Its main rival grew faster in the same three months. Tiendas 3B opened 141 net stores between July and September, 29 more than Bara.
What it means for shoppers
For people in Mexico City, the closures will show up as individual OXXO branches shutting while new ones open elsewhere, since the chain still added stores on balance. FEMSA has not said which locations are on its closure list. Some neighborhood pharmacies and OXXO Gas stations are also disappearing, and discount shoppers are getting more Bara and Tiendas 3B options as both chains open branches.
The program is due to run through December 2026, by which point FEMSA expects to have closed about 250 OXXO stores since July.
Source: Expansión
