Safeway Stores will close 12 Dominick’s stores in the Chicago area on March 13.
Safeway will shutter the under-performing stores in order to focus on turning around the troubled chain, which Pleasanton, CA-based Safeway took off the block late in November 2003 because its buyer couldn’t agree on a contract with the United Food and Commercial Workers (January PROMO). The closures leave Dominick’s with 101 stores.
A direct-mail, advertising and in-store campaign will tell shoppers about the closings and list nearby Dominick’s locations. Pharmacy customers get a letter listing other Dominick’s stores with pharmacies.
The closures are “a difficult but necessary step toward a better Dominick’s for Chicagoland. Closing these stores will make Dominick’s healthier and allow us to focus on growing the business,” said Dominick’s President Randall Onstead in a statement. Safeway appointed Onstead, the founder of Randall’s Food Markets, to head Dominick’s in November.
Tensions with the food workers’ union have dogged Dominick’s, which plans to move some staffers from closing stores to other locations. The closures could further rile workers. Meanwhile, UFCW workers’ strike against Safeway’s California stores is now in its 15th week.
Network
