Nearly 1,000 Skaggs Alpha Beta employees will start the new year looking for work.
American Stores Co. announced Wednesday that it will close its eight Utah stores effective Jan. 31. Smith's Food and Drug Center Inc. of Salt Lake City plans to reopen some the affected locations as Smith's stores."We're just all (shocked) because we didn't have any notice," said Wendy Davis, a cashier at the Skaggs Alpha Beta at 3171 E. 3300 South. "The thing that's sad is they're not offering us any jobs."
Employees had heard rumors for the past two years that the stores would be sold, but the announcement was an unpleasant surprise to most employees.
"There's a lot of people who have worked here 10 years. They're going to have a hard time getting back to where they were" in terms of salary and seniority, said Dan Hansen, an employee at the 3300 South store.
Smith's has agreed to lease seven of the closed stores and purchase the fixtures and equipment in each store. Smith's plans to reopen certain, as yet unspecified, stores as Smith's Food and Drug Centers and lease some to other retailers.
Skaggs Alpha Beta employs about 1,256 people in Utah, but Smith's would not confirm whether it would rehire the workers when it opens the remodeled stores.
"We were told not to expect anything from Smith's," said Kyle Fisher, another employee of the 3300 South store.
Shoppers at the 3300 South store said they were displeased the Alpha Beta Store will be closing. One shopper, who refused to give her name, said she was particularly disheartened that Smith's was assuming the majority of the affected stores.
"I hate to see a store like that become so dominant. I don't think it's good. It's not good for one operation to have that much control over food prices," she said.
Meanwhile, Albertson's Inc. of Boise is negotiating with Skaggs Alpha Beta to acquire the eighth store, in Centerville. If a sale is negotiated, Albertson's plans to hire a majority of the store's full-time hourly employees and resume operation shortly after the transfer of the store.
Skaggs Alpha Beta is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Stores Co., which plans to maintain its administrative center in Salt Lake City. Company officials did not comment in a prepared release why the stores will be closed.
American returned its headquarters to Utah earlier this year after its $2.5 billion takeover of Lucky Stores of California. The center employs 401 people who perform the administrative and accounting functions for 45 Buttrey Food-Drug Stores in five Intermountain states, 71 Skaggs Alpha Beta stores in four states and three Jewel Osco stores in Florida.
Nineteen Osco Drug Stores operated by American Drug Stores Inc., another subsidiary of American Stores Co, will not be effected by the change. However, Skaggs Alpha Beta is planning to transfer all customer pharmacy records to the nearest Osco Drug.
American Stores is the nation's largest retail food and drug chain. Upon sale of the Utah stores, it will operate 1,898 stores in 40 states.