The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A&P) has revealed what many have widely speculated since the grocer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month: It’s officially seeking to dispose of its remaining 153 locations, in addition to its original plans to close 25 stores and sell 118, according to published reports.
The properties consist of The Food Emporium locations in Manhattan; A&Ps in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey; Food Basics supermarkets in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania; Pathmarks in Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania; Superfresh locations in Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania; Waldbaum's stores in New York; and Best Cellars/Wines & Spirits in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.
Bids are due by Sept. 11, with any store not claimed by then to be sold at auction on Oct. 7. Potential bidders could be ShopRite and C&S Wholesale Grocers, among other metro-New York regional grocery operators.
In related news, A&P had earlier asked the judge overseeing the Chapter 11 proceedings at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., to set aside two collective bargaining agreement provisions, those of paying full severance and automatically conferring seniority rights, as a way to finalize sales agreements with buyers and potentially save some associates’ jobs. The unions responded that workers had already given up millions in wage and benefit concessions during the grocer's 2010 bankruptcy, at which time the A&P agreed to honor the provisions currently at issue and said it would sell any stores only to union employers.
For his part, Judge Robert P. Drain asked both sides to resolve their differences by Wednesday, Aug. 19.
I worked for Sav A Center in Cary NC from 1993-95. I was well paid, had benefits and a union backing me up. I learned a great deal about the retail meat industry while working for them. Met and worked with some of the best in the biz. sad news
I work with them in Atlanta for 48 years, They were a great company to work for. I raised three kids while with them. They were a power house in the 50's to 80's shame to see them go out
Me too. Got my start with them and I owe my successes to them for what I learned in 12 years. I got out right right before they shut my division down. That being said this is the second chapter 11 filings in the past 5 years. Once vendors get a whiff of a companies financial problems they begin to limit the amount of goods they will sell to them or require 'cash only" transactions and this generally pushes the problem company over the edge. So now I suppose the finger pointing begins; management will say it was because of the unions, the unions will say its because of poor management and the workers are caught in the middle wondering 'what difference does it make". Because now everything changes for them.
In our competitive cut-throat business if you don't learn to change whether it is merchandising plans, store locations, modernization, new product development, advertising, employee motivation, etc. You are going to fail. To coin a saying from Winston Churchill; " to change is to improve and to have improved is to have changed many times". A & P didn't do that.
I worked with two meat wrappers over the years that worked for them, they told me they were great to work for but that they had the horniest meat cutters in town lol
Thanks for the update Leon. I believe A&P had 18,000 stores at one time! Of the remaining 158, I know that well over 100 of them are Pathmarks. I worked for Pathmark for 15 years. It was my last stop on the meat train. Pathmark had 150 stores when I worked for them. It was a real innovator in the industry being the first to introduce check out scanners as just one of those innovations. It also led the industry with the highest sales $$/square foot. At the time they operated some of the largest stores in the country and many of them did over $1 million/week in sales. Pathmark owned and operated its own warehouses, lunchmeat, sausage plants, trucking company and more. Its sanitation was the best in the business. They also owned the Rickels home improvement chain, a department store chain, a convenience store chain, and the chain of super-sized free-standing pharmacies, Heartland Pharmacy. They also owned ALL THE REAL ESTATE the properties were on!
It all started going downhill when a super-wealthy money guy and his son started buying up all the stock they could with the intention of doing a hostile take over. I guess the stock was under-valued. The company and our unions met with them to try to learn what the future held. These guys were very clear. They told us they don't operate supermarkets. Their intentions were to liquidate everything. Pathmark then went to Merril Lynch as the "white knight" and borrowed several billion dollars to do a leveraged buy out and take the company private by buying up a majority of the stock before this guy could. That only delayed the inevitable. Soon Merril Lynch wanted its money back faster than they were getting it. The company started selling off all the arms and legs in an attempt to save the core (Pathmark stores only). Everything else was sold, even the real estate and then leased back to the company. It wasn't enough and Pathmark filed Chapter 11. When they came out of bankruptcy, and they did, A&P bought them, which was the coup de grace for both companies, and now here we are.
My wife still works for the Pathmark in Wilmington, DE and was told this one would be closed Sept. 4 as there were no buyers. I will give her this new news but we were both actually looking forward to this and her getting out.
At one time Pathmark was a great company to work for as it was the leader, but I can also say I never worked so hard in my life as I did there!
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A&P) has revealed what many have widely speculated since the grocer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month: It’s officially seeking to dispose of its remaining 153 locations, in addition to its original plans to close 25 stores and sell 118, according to published reports.
The properties consist of The Food Emporium locations in Manhattan; A&Ps in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey; Food Basics supermarkets in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania; Pathmarks in Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania; Superfresh locations in Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania; Waldbaum's stores in New York; and Best Cellars/Wines & Spirits in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.
Bids are due by Sept. 11, with any store not claimed by then to be sold at auction on Oct. 7. Potential bidders could be ShopRite and C&S Wholesale Grocers, among other metro-New York regional grocery operators.
In related news, A&P had earlier asked the judge overseeing the Chapter 11 proceedings at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., to set aside two collective bargaining agreement provisions, those of paying full severance and automatically conferring seniority rights, as a way to finalize sales agreements with buyers and potentially save some associates’ jobs. The unions responded that workers had already given up millions in wage and benefit concessions during the grocer's 2010 bankruptcy, at which time the A&P agreed to honor the provisions currently at issue and said it would sell any stores only to union employers.
For his part, Judge Robert P. Drain asked both sides to resolve their differences by Wednesday, Aug. 19.
I think in an earlier message you mentioned that your wife is getting screwed out of her retirement by the store closing a week before she completes the required number of years to be eligible. Has that been resolved?
Sort of. Since it is so close it looks like she will only lose $3/month out of her gigantic $345/month pension. However if A&P has changed its mind and wants to sell all stores and not close 25 of them she might keep working although I don't really want her to. It's in her contract that she should be able to bump into one of the remaining open stores even if someone else buys them but A&P is trying to weasel out of that agreement. As in the article Leon posted, the judge has ordered the union and company to "work that out".
fdarn wrote:
Hey Jim,
I think in an earlier message you mentioned that your wife is getting screwed out of her retirement by the store closing a week before she completes the required number of years to be eligible. Has that been resolved?
I used to go shopping at the Danbury Ct location with my mom up until the late 80's when it closed.
It was pretty nice for the time with an in store pharmacy and videos to rent. The managers office was up front above the customer service center kiosk.
I started at a A&P. I worked for the Canadian division which was sold to Metro to boost the American Division. That had to be within the last 10 years. Our meat shop set a sales record for A&P. We were always in the top 5 if not 1st in sales for A&P Canada. I miss those days. Sad to hear its over.
