Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Albertsons' Sunset In Florida

In August of this year, Albertsons LLC had announced that they were closing four Florida stores and lay off 288 employees. Albertsons' divesture of their holdings in Florida is nothing new. Since Albertsons Inc. was sold off piecemeal in 2006 to a number of corporations, the remaining stores have been slowly liquidated to whoever was willing to pay. A week after the creation of Albertsons LLC, the company had announced they would close 100 stores. In November of 2006, another 132 stores would be sold off, and the trend would not stop there. Last year, another large sale was made, when Publix Super Markets purchased 49 stores for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Recently, it was announced that Albertsons has decided to sell 3 store locations to Sedano Supermarkets.  As I had previously posted, Albertsons had failed to administer severance plans in the past, and with the number of stores in Florida dwindling, it is only a matter of time that Albertsons exits the market altogether.  With the number of stores still in operation, Albertsons' distribution centers would not be operating at a profit, and I would be certain that they are actively seeking buyers for the remainder of their locations, but the bigger concern for me are the workers who would be affected by such decisions.  My own personal experience with how Albertsons handles layoffs act as an alarm for other employees who may face the same fate.  With the most recent announcement, layoffs will certainly follow, but will the company act responsibly or look only to benefit the executives?  I hope those who are faced with unemployment will be able to find the information provided on this site, especially the severance agreement

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