Grocery chain to close 37 stores Grocery workers will be laid off

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/06/08/BUGA0JACKK1.DTL&type=business

Grocery chain to close 37 stores Grocery workers will be laid off
Albertson's selects underperforming outlets in Bay Area


The decision by the owners of Albertsons supermarkets to close 37 underperforming Northern California stores creates another wave of anxiety for the chain's workers, who have been buffeted by fierce competition and wholesale changes in the grocery industry.

Some of the workers in stores to be shut will be reassigned if they exercise seniority rights to replace employees at other stores. Others will be laid off. The stores will close by early August.

"It's tense at every store, with people concerned about their positions," said Glenda Villalta, 52, a 13-year checker at a San Jose Albertsons. "We all know that layoffs are imminent. We know that employees will be reshuffled.''

Both Albertson's Inc. and the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents the chain's in-store employees, said Wednesday it is too early to know how many people will lose jobs until it becomes clear how many exercise seniority rights.

The closure announcement, made Tuesday, came just days after completion of the sale of Albertson's to a consortium of buyers for $17.4 billion in cash, stock and assumed debt. The group includes grocer Supervalu Inc., drugstore chain CVS Corp. and private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.

Job growth is good. Outsourcing is helping American business. People are working, companies are expanding. Everything is wonderful. George Bush says so.

:sarcasm:

recent past, trying to drastically reduce if not eliminate workers' health benefits. Because it claimed the chain could not compete against Walmart's grocery program in California.

I remember hearing about that. Ralphs also had labor problems and a long strike.

:(

I want to buy grocerys where the stores are clean. Our local stores (TX), they always seemed cluttered and dirty.

DROP THOSE DAMN CARDS.

Like every chain that has them, they jacked their prices up the day those stupid cards came in so that their "card sales" would look like a good deal.

I know I can register as Minnie Mouse since I always pay in cash, but I deeply resent the "ef you got your paperzzz?" to get my groceries at the same price non card stores charge while Minnie gets her purchases logged at the supermarket big brother in the sky.

It's just another damned nuisance. If they dropped it and went back to normal pricing, their sales would increase.

There is only one supermarket near my small town and back to three or four years ago the place was packed. Now days when I go to the store(Kroger) the place is practically empty. No waiting in long lines even though they have sale after good sale. The truth might be that folks just simply can't afford to buy as many groceries as they used to. I have been looking for some of the Kroger stores to close due to lack of business.

your doing a good job bushie!