Foodland Closing in Perth-Andover
Stephanie Kelley
In a move that has stunned its employees across the nation, and will cause thousands of jobs to be eliminated, Sobeys is closing the doors on 50 of its grocery stores in Canada.
Five of these stores are in New Brunswick, including the Foodland on F. Tribe Road in Perth-Andover.
Closing this store means that 17 people in the village will lose their jobs, a huge loss to the employees, their families and our community.
Store Manager Greg Stone and all of the staff were taken completely by surprise when they received the word on June 25th that their store would be done the following week.
Last summer, Sobeys spent $5.8 billion to acquire Safeway’s Canadian assets. Since then, Sobeys has undertaken a “detailed review” of its network of stores across Canada. During this process, it identified 50 stores that “consistently under-performed.”
Good bye small town supermarkets.
But even as the closures devastate employees and communities, they will help the firm achieve its goal of shaving hundreds of millions of dollars in operating costs annually, ultimately helping the corporation to earn even bigger profits.
“After all”, says Sobeys Chief Executive Marc Poulin, “It’s all about maximizing value for shareholders.”
