Monday, July 09, 2007
The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company has announced plans to close nine underperforming stores in southern New Jersey.
The Company will close the following stores at the beginning of August 2007:
400 East Evesham Road, Cherry Hill, 1445 Brace Road, Cherry Hill, 127 Ark Road, Mt. Laurel, 401 South Pitney Road, Absecon, 542 Berlin-Cross Keys Road, Sicklerville, 892 Union Mill Road, Mt. Laurel, 1200 Chews Landing Road, Laurel Springs, 3401 Route 9 South, Rio Grande, 143 Bridgeton Pike, Mullica Hill.
“After a thorough review of the operating performance of these stores, we made a very difficult business decision to close these underperforming locations,” said Senior Vice President of Operations Ron Onorato. “However, the closure of these stores will allow us to focus our investment and resources on growing our business in other areas in the Northeast.”
Stop & Shop has developed job transition initiatives and will be working with a job outplacement firm, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) local unions and state and local government officials to assist store associates who are impacted by these store closings.
“We appreciate the dedication of our associates, and we will work to support them through this transition by providing outplacement services, including resume preparation and interview skills training and other career transition services,” Onorato said.
Stop & Shop also announced it has entered into an agreement to sell the store fixtures and assets for these locations to Wakefern Food Corp. after the stores close in August. Wakefern Food Corp. is headquartered in Elizabeth, NJ, and operates ShopRite stores.