Dive Brief:
- Safeway set a Dec. 28 deadline for its previously announced plans to exit the Chicago area. Any of its Dominick's stores not sold by then will be shuttered.
- With just four of the 72 Dominick's supermarkets sold so far, the threat of a large-scale layoff of workers looms large.
- Safeway set the Dec. 28 deadline in a letter it set to workers on Oct. 25. The timing of that letter is in keeping with a legal requirement in Illinois that companies give 60-days notice of layoffs involving 500 people or a third of the workforce.
Dive Insight:
It's easy to read too much in to Safeway's announcement. The law requires that Safeway make an announcement well in advance of closing the stores. So that fact that the announcement has come doesn't necessarily mean that no more sales are coming. The Dominick's stores have only been on the market for three weeks. We, and no doubt thousands of workers and shoppers, are hopeful that buyers will emerge for many of the remaining stores.
