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Business & Tech

Superfresh to Eliminate About 1,500 Maryland Jobs

The company plans to sell 22 stores in the state.

The Superfresh grocery chain notified state officials on Monday that it intends to eliminate about 1,500 jobs in Maryland, with job terminations to begin as early as July 9.

Michael Raia, a spokesman for the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, said the agency had received notification from Superfresh for precisely 1,477 terminations at 22 separate stores across the state, .

Under state law, employers are required to notify state officials when they are planning mass firings, he said. So-called WARN notices are also required to be sent directly to the employees affected, Raia said.

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George Murphy Jr., president of United Food & Commercial Workers Local 27, said union members employed at Superfresh first began receiving notices about April 29.

That was one day after a federal bankruptcy court in White Plains, NY, gave Superfresh’s parent company permission to sell off the 22 Maryland stores, in addition to two other stores in Delaware and one in Washington, DC, Murphy said.

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Meanwhile, the corporate owner of the Superfresh chain—the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., or A&P—is scheduled to open bids Tuesday in the auction sale of the 25 stores. No sales or closures will be finalized until the bankruptcy court gives its approval, which is expected at the end of May.

Real estate experts have said that some of the stores are likely to remain as grocery outlets, but that others will be converted to other uses, or closed entirely.

In any event, the Superfresh jobs will be eliminated and displaced workers will have to seek jobs with the new owners, or in other workplaces.

A spokesman for A&P did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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