The ShopRite supermarket on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023, in Colonie, NY. The store, on Central Avenue, is one of five in the Capital Region to close on Dec. 9.
Jim Franco/Times Union
ALBANY — The ShopRite supermarket chain plans to shut down five Capital Region locations Dec. 9.
“Shop-Rite Supermarkets, Inc. (SRS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Wakefern Food Corp., has made the decision to close its ShopRite stores and gas stations in the Capital Region including the stores located in Albany, Colonie, Niskayuna, Slingerlands and North Greenbush. The stores will close on or about Dec. 9,” according to a prepared statement by Wakefern Food Corp. spokeswoman Karen Meleta.
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“We entered the marketplace a little over a decade ago to bring a quality supermarket to the area. Unfortunately, we have not been able to sustain the level of sales needed to keep the stores operating today. We thank our customers for their patronage and our dedicated associates who served the community,” Meleta added.
“When we entered this marketplace, we did so with an intent to provide an exceptional shopping experience to the customers,” according to a letter sent Friday by ShopRite Supermarkets Inc. to its vendors. “Today, due to changing market conditions and the influx of food retailers in the area, we are unable to maintain the level of sales needed to keep operating these locations. As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to close the stores.”
An employee at one of the stores, speaking on condition of anonymity, said workers at their location were given the news Friday morning. “This is something that we just heard today,” the worker said. “ … We haven’t been profitable.”
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About 500 employees are expected to lose their jobs due to the closures. They are represented by two union locals, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1262, which represents store clerks and “front of store” people, and Local 1, which represents jobs like meat cutters and other “back of store” operations.
“We were really taken by surprise,” Harvey Whille, president of Local 1262, said, explaining that the union learned of the looming closures Friday morning. “We’re going to take every action that is available to us,” he said, adding that union officials will be meeting with lawyers and then the company to discuss severance and other arrangements as the stores shut down.
Frank DeRiso, president of Local 1, said his union also learned of the closure plans Friday morning. “It was definitely a shock to us,” he said.
Full-time unionized ShopRite employees earn $18 to $30 hourly with the higher level going to department heads and experienced meat cutters. The stores also has full benefits including health insurance and pension contributions.
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“These are career jobs,” DeRiso said.
He added that they will be looking at successor language in their contracts, which could induce a new supermarket buyer, if there is one, to honor the terms of the existing labor contracts or to offer buyouts. The contracts run through 2025 for Local 1, according to a prepared statement from the union. Local 1 said employees who stay with the store through the Dec. 9 closure date will be paid through Jan. 18. That’s to comply with conditions of the federal/state WARN Act rules, which call for 90-day notification of plant closures.
Whille and DeRiso said they believe ShopRite may be selling the Capital Region stores to another supermarket chain.
“Local 1 was told that the locations had been purchased. We do not know who bought them since ShopRite is hiding behind a 'non-disclosure' agreement. We were told that it may not be a grocery retailer but would not be all surprised if it’s Hannaford/Ahold Delhaize, which currently is an industry rumor,” Local 1 noted in an email.
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ShopRite’s major expansion into the Capital Region market began a little more than a decade ago. The company has also recently closed stores in the Hudson Valley, Long Island and Connecticut.
The shuttering of the local ShopRite locations will be a boon for Price Chopper/Market 32 and Hannaford, the other dominant supermarket chains in the region. But it could deepen concerns over the expansion of “food deserts” in some parts of the Capital Region — especially through the loss of Albany’s Central Avenue store, which is adjacent to the economically challenged West End neighborhood.
“It’s a shame. Right at Christmas time,” DeRiso said of the planned December closure.
Mike Goodwin contributed.
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