Do you have a Supervalu store near you? Well you may find that your favorite cashier or butcher may not be there anymore. For those of you have never heard of the company here is a look at how they describe themselves, “SUPERVALU^® is a leader in the grocery retailing industry. We are a grocery and pharmacy company serving a wide range of customers in neighborhoods nationwide, through stores ranging from hard discount to traditional and premium grocery formats. SUPERVALU reaches millions of families with the products and services they need through owned, licensed, franchised and affiliated stores.”  The grocery store is one of the three largest in the United States at the current moment.

They are getting ready to get rid of about 2,500 positions in what is known as the Albertsons unit. That unit covers stores in the states of Nevada as well as California. There are roughly 147 stores in that unit and it looks like the cuts are expected to come from all of these locations. The cuts represent a loss of about 13 percent of the overall workforce for this unit of the company, making it a fairly significant loss of jobs.
As a matter of fact these cuts are more than enough to qualify as a mass layoff action. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.” By those standards it looks like the job cuts could qualify as mass layoff actions in more than one state, or at the very least in several different stores at the same time.

In a release put out by the company Dan Sanders, the president of the Albertsons Southern California Division said the following about the job cuts, “A decision of this nature is never easy, but it is the necessary step for us to take to help improve our business and accelerate our turnaround. Our goal is to more effectively serve the marketplace by scheduling associates more appropriately to serve customers at the times they shop. I am confident our team will embrace these changes and help us to compete more effectively in a rapidly changing marketplace.”

The layoffs will begin on the 17^th of June and they are expected to be over with by the time that the first of July comes around, or at least near to that date. The company is attributing the loss of jobs to an overall decline in the sales of products and an increase in the costs of products, primarily due to factors such as gas prices and shipping.