Major Chains Closing Stores – Albertsons – California – 3/16

Albertsons

• Albertsons closed 26 stores in January and February according to Supermarket News. Analysts expect many more Albertsons could soon be shuttered because Albertsons owner hedge fund Cerberus Capital Management just bought Safeway Inc. Some Safeway stores could soon shut down as well.

Albertsons will shut down 11 Southern California stores by the end of next month, most of them in the Los Angeles area, the company confirmed on Monday.

Nationally, the company is closing 26 underperforming stores by the end of its fiscal year on Feb. 20, officials said.

The liquidation sales will start on Wednesday, said Lilia M. Rodriguez, spokeswoman for Albertsons Southern California division. Customers of stores with a pharmacy will be notified where prescriptions can be picked up, she said.

Albertsons is privately held and did not publicly announce the closings.

“We didn’t send anything out. We just made the announcement to our associates and our partners in the community,” she said.

She would not say how many workers are impacted.

“We’re not breaking out the numbers because every store is different,” Rodriguez said.

Albertsons is offering the employees relocation assistance within the company.

“The goal is to place as many as possible in other positions. Human resources is working with each employee as well as the labor unions to make sure everything is applicable with the appropriate laws and labor agreements,” she said.

Representatives of Local 770 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union could not be reached for comment.

Ten of the stores are in the Los Angeles area and one is in San Diego.

In the fall of 2012 then-parent Supervalu Inc. closed 19 stores across the region.

“This gives us the resources and opportunity to reinvest in our existing stores and build a stronger business,” Rodriguez said.

After the closures Albertsons will have 281 stores in five divisions across the country.

Economist William W. Roberts, director of the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at Cal State Northridge said that Albertsons is facing competition from Wal-Mart and Costco and is fuzzy about its target market.

“The big-box stores are having a significant impact on the grocery business,” Roberts said. “Albertsons never had a clearly defined market. If you look at Gelson’s you know what it is, the high-end market.

“Having shopped grocery stores in the Valley I couldn’t associate Albertsons with any specific clientele.”

Supervalu parted way with Albertsons in March of last year when it completed the sale of the chain and four others to investor group AB Acquisitions LLC, an affiliate of a Cerberus Capital Management L.P.-led investor consortium, for $3.3 billion.