Change is on the way for grocery shoppers. Local Albertsons workers and patrons will have to adapt to the closing of the supermarket on Diablo Road this summer.
Owners announced last week the company will shed one of the two Danville Albertsons along with 36 others of the Northern California-based stores. The store on Diablo Road will close by August because of low sales, said Quyen Ha, spokeswoman for Albertsons.
“We took a step back and looked at under-performing stores,” Ha said.
Eleven East Bay locations will shut down, leaving about 600 employees jobless – with a small chance of transferring to other stores.
One employee, who asked that his name not be printed, said workers are hoping to get job placement based on seniority. At the Diablo Road Albertsons, he said, a lot of loyal workers are scared they won’t have a job next month.
“There are people who have three kids and have worked here 12 years who are going to lose their jobs,” he said.
There is currently an effort to find positions for these workers at nearby Albertsons, Ha said. In Danville, the management has already given employees job request papers to fill out. The papers give employees a chance to ask for a preferred position and store location.
“We are definitely working to actively place associates in other locations based on seniority,” Ha said.
But there will be significantly more workers than positions to be filled. With about 600 laid-off East Bay employees and 10 nearby remaining locations, some employees will inevitably be out of work.
“We need all the support we can get,” the Albertsons worker said.
A plan to close the stores came less than a week after Cerberus Partners, the new owners, took over the company. Stores that were closed accounted for 22 percent of the Albertsons stores in Northern California and only 12 percent of sales.
Closing these store locations will help the company improve customer service by giving it the means to put more capital into successful stores, Ha said.
“We’ll have a stronger base of solidly performing stores and we’ll be better able to serve the community,” she said.
Some local shoppers, however, say the closure hurts the community more than it helps. Patrons who depend on a nearby mid-range grocery store said they aren’t happy to see it go.
“It’s a shame that we’re losing a large chain supermarket. It’s so convenient,” said patron Steve Allen.
Chary Phuon, who owns Christy’s Donuts, a pastry and coffee shop adjacent to the Albertsons, said she is disappointed to see the store close. She said she shops there because the workers are friendly and the location is familiar.
“I’m sad to see Albertsons employees go; they come in (to Christy’s) all the time,” she said.
She guessed that the store closure will affect her business and the others in the shopping center, but only on a small level.
Other patrons were not bothered by the change, as long as another food store fills the lease soon.
“If there’s a different grocery chain that comes in, that’s fine,” said Randy Roque, who shops at Albertsons from time to time.
“We’d like it if they put a Trader Joe’s in,” said Bill Ashurst, who lives within walking distance of the store.
Some said they’d gladly spend an extra 10 minutes in the car to get to the Albertsons on San Ramon Valley Boulevard.
“I’ll just go to the other one,” shopper Julia Bramer noted.
There is no news on who will take over the store’s lease, but similar locations have already been filled with mid-priced grocery stores. The Albertsons in downtown Walnut Creek will be replaced with a Trader Joe’s.
“It would be bad if the spot was vacant for a long time,” Ashurst said.
The Albertsons stores in Danville were Lucky stores until Albertsons purchased the Lucky chain in 1998 and converted its supermarkets to the Albertsons brand a year later.
