A&P End of An
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Lehman College From the SelectedWorks of Aisha Al-Muslim November 22, 2015 A&P End of an Era Aisha Al-Muslim Available at: https://works.bepress.com/aisha_al_muslim/80/ TECH REVIEW A43 APPETIZING APPSFOR THE HOLIDAY A46 LI LIBusiness BUSINESS VINE LE ED newsday.com BY COMPOSITE OTO PH NEWSDAY, BY AISHA AL-MUSLIM Great Atlantic &Pacific Tea costing more than 2,000 jobs in in October. 72, of East Meadow, who said he [email protected] Co., prepares to go out of busi- Nassau and Suffolk counties. For someLong Island shop- doesn’t understand why the ness forever. So far, A&P has received pers, the thought of having a Waldbaum’s he has shopped at SUNDAY, romthe last can of to- A&P is in Chapter 11 bank- bankruptcy court approval to brand-new grocery store in since 1976wasn’t bought by an- mato saucetothe last ruptcy,and by the end of this sell 31 of its Long Island stores their neighborhood is cause for othersupermarket. roll of paper towels, ev- month, its 51 Long Island super- for more than $50 million. Most excitement. But for others, the And for many A&P employ- erything is on sale at markets will have shut their have been bought by other su- closings leave them with fewer ees on Long Island,the end of NOVEMBER F the few remaining doors. Whilemany of A&P’s permarket chains. It has pend- choices and longer tripstoget the chain is adirect blow. Waldbaum’s and Pathmark 5,000 workers on Long Island ing offers totaling $4 million food. “We are the ones suffering,” stores open on Long Island as have been hiredatsuccessor for two stores. Thirteen stores “I feel like agood friend aban- their parent company, the grocery stores, the closures are remain unsold, and five closed doned us,” said Donald E. Simon, See CLOSED on A44 22, 2015 PEOPLE ON THE MOVE Who’s been hired and promoted on LI newsday.com/business A44 LI BUSINESS BUSINESS LI LifeafterA&P As final stores in the chain prepare to close their doors, consumers and employees wonder what the futureholds CLOSED from A43 said Sabitri Grappone, 58, who worked as abookkeeper and cashieratthe Waldbaum’s in Jericho and had been with A&P for 41 years. “In afew weeks people aregoing to be on the unemployment line.” An A&P spokeswoman de- clined to comment. A&P, said Marc Levinson, author of thebook “The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America,” published in 2011, “hasspent UIS LO more than half acentury driv- UE ing itself out of business.” NIQ Montvale, New Jersey- basedA&P operated 296 VERO stores under banners such as Seniors Christina Petersen, A&P, Food Emporium, Super above left, and Dorothy Freshand Food Basics; its 51 Sundberg are fretting about the local stores included 32 Wald- closure of the Greenlawn baum’s and 19 Pathmarks. Waldbaum’s. Left, longtime Jericho employees, from left, Mail-order started in 1859 John Stellakis, Sabitri A&P was founded in 1859 as Grappone, Debbie Heckstall amail-order tea and spice busi- and John Cavise. ness run by merchants George H. Hartford and George F. Gil- man. By 1930 the company had sought to sell all its stores. more than 16,000 stores and $1 Some couldn’t find buyers be- billion in sales. cause the remaining lease peri- For four decades up to the od was short, the rent was too 1960s, A&P was the largest re- high, the locations were unfa- newsday.com tailer in the world, Levinson vorable, there was nearby said. competition, or thestores’ A&P’s decline began after physical condition was not up 2015 president John A. Hartford and to par, real estate experts and 22, board chairman George L. union officials said. Hartford died in the 1950s. In Many employees at closing EIT 1979 the Hartford family heirs IS Waldbaum’s and Pathmark and the John A. Hartford Foun- UL stores worked their last day on NOVEMBER dation, which owned amajori- afteranother, A&P became a lion in 2007. It first filed for cessfully reducing its pension Nov. 12. Others, such as cash- ty of the stock, sold to the Ten- regional supermarket in the bankruptcy in 2010, emerging obligations and othercosts. iers, continue to work until the gelmann Group of Germany. New York area,” he said. in 2012 as aprivate company. “They couldn’t compete final stores close on Nov. 30. “The company just started Despite its struggles, A&P A&P blamed its failure to with retailers that were faster, SUNDAY, shrinking,”said Levinson, of purchased Waldbaum’s for turn around after bankruptcy cheaper and more creative,” Unions count toll Washington, D.C. “It used to $287 million in 1986, and on growing competition, on Levinson said. Mineola-based Local 338 of be acoast-to-coast company bought longtime rival Path- not closing 50 to 60 underper- Soon afterfiling for its sec- the United Food &Commercial ...As it sold one operation mark Stores for about $1.4 bil- forming stores, and on not suc- ondbankruptcy in July, A&P Workers International Union NEWSDAY, LI BUSINESS A45 (UFCW) estimates that close to “It was because of the sacri- for me to sit down, and she tion, is trying to get asuper- markets could also suffer. LI 1,200 of its members who fices of our members that wouldget all my groceries market operator forthe store “It is never agood thing for BUSINESS worked at Waldbaum’s stores A&P was able to survive the ...she would pack every- buthas not reached any agree- agrocery-anchored shopping on Long Island lost their jobs, last five years,” Durso said. thing in the bags and kiss me ment yet, attorney Theodore centertoconvert into anon- while another 1,000 people Steve Kopezna, 55, of Bohe- goodbye.” A. Stamas said. Shanghai has grocery-anchored shopping have been hired to work in mia, amarried father of three SuffolkCounty Legis. Will- been in talkswith an upscale center,” said Jayson Siano, other supermarkets. who had worked with Path- iam Spencer, who represents grocery operator, anational Sabre Real Estate Group man- “No matter what you do in mark for 35 years, said he will the area, said, “We are trying drugchain and gym owners, aging principal, who repre- this situation, it is never now focus full-time on the to find other options to see but it may needtosubdivide sents Stop &Shop. “The fre- enough,” Local 338 president business he started last year what can be done to fill the the46,000-square-foot space, quency of the visit for agro- John Durso said. “We have selling air and water purifiers. gap like grocery delivery.” he said. cery storeishigher than are- been out there in the stores, His wife is unemployed, and Aspokeswoman for Federal Union officials, residents tail store. It is aboutcreating talking to people and meeting their house has gone into fore- Realty, which operates the gro- and Waldbaum’s workers trafficfor the other tenants in with people to try to give closure. He plans to take the cery-anchored shopping cen- have accused Shanghai of try- the shopping center.” them direction that they need severance pay and file for un- ters in Greenlawn and ing to avoid hiring workers Landlords may also try to to try to ease the burden.” employment. Melville, said it was too early from the store. Stamas said lease to smaller supermarket Westbury-based UFCW “With my job gone soon this to share its plans for the type the company’s managing mem- operators, gyms anddepart- Local 1500, which had about will be addedpressure on our of tenant it is pursuing in ber, Evangelos Gerasimou, tes- ment stores. 1,300 membersatPathmarks family,” said Kopezna, who Melville. It noted that even tified in an October court hear- One way or another, change on the Island, estimates that managedaPathmark in Bay though it is the landlord in ing that his client was not in is coming. outofthat figure 500 mem- Shore, where he made ham- Greenlawn, it was not the pur- thegrocery business, but that “There is not alot of big- bers were hired for other gro- burgers and hot dogs for all the chaser of the store lease. opening asupermarket was box space out there,” said cery jobs. At least three other workers on their last day. “I’m not out of the question. “They Joshua Weinkranz, president unions represent other A&P sure that there will be other Seeking replacement know there is aneed for agro- of the Northeast region for employees on the Island. families in oursituation, and Shanghai Enterprises, areal cery store and supermarket Kimco Realty. “This gives op- Some of the workers at the my heart goes out to them.” estate developerbased in Ja- there,” he said. portunitiesfor alot of retail- stores purchased by supermar- maica, Queens,and the new Smaller retailers at shop- erswho want to come into the ket chains have since been Community impact owner of the Greenlawn loca- ping centers losing their super- New York market.” hired, including 1,100 employed The closure of the Wald- by Stop &Shop, and 109 by baum’s in Melville poses hur- King Kullen.Others may be dles for Harold May, who is hired by Best Market, Key taking care of his 86-year-old Food, Foodtown and ShopRite, mother in that community. whohave made commitments “That was one of the only The GreatAtlantic &Pacific TeaCo. (A&P) to hiresome workers from the supermarkets in Melville it- Long Island stores they ac- self,” said May, 55, aparalegal Founded: 1859 quired from A&P.