Shoppers Workers Rally, Grocery Store Closing Date Set In MOCO

LANDOVER, MD — Workers at Shoppers grocery stores rallied Tuesday in Landover to protest new chain owner United Natural Foods Inc.’s decision to close four stores and sell 13 others in the midst of the holiday season. And on Thursday workers at a Shoppers store in Montgomery County were told their jobs will be eliminated in a month. UNFI on Dec. 6 said it has sold 17 of its 43 Shoppers stores in Maryland and Virginia to three separate grocery operators. The sales are expected to close between mid-December and the end of February 2020.

Shoppers will sell all inventory as it winds down operations at these stores, and close the businesses, some of which will reopen under other companies. Officials with United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 400 said that for a year they have tried to meet with UNFI management, but received no reply and no meetings were held.

On Thursday, Shoppers told workers at the White Flint Plaza store in Kensington that the store will close by Jan. 16, 2020, union officials said.

Mark Federici, president of United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400, said in a statement:
“This is the latest in a series of heartless decisions from UNFI to announce store closures in the midst of the holiday season. The hardworking men and women who put food on our tables should not have to spend the holidays worrying about how they will feed their families or where their next paycheck will come from."

Workers from Shoppers stores rallied with elected officials, community leaders and members of other unions in front of a Landover Shoppers to fight for justice and fair treatment for all affected workers.

“We’re here today because somebody in a far-off office in a far-off city made a choice," Federici told the crowd, according to a union statement. "Somebody made a choice to turn their back on these families. Somebody made that choice in the Christmas season. That’s just wrong. It just stinks."

Amber Stevens, an 11-year veteran who works at the Shoppers in Forestville, said, “The past year has been very hard not knowing what will happen next. We are calling on UNFI to give us some answers. We are decent human beings who deserve to be treated that way.”

“I want to let UNFI know that we’re not going to give up,” said Local 400 Vice President Kevin Freeman, who works at Shoppers #2618 in New Carrollton. “I want them to understand what they are putting families through so close to Christmas. I want them to see the kids who will look under their trees and won’t find the gifts they were expecting. I don’t understand how UNFI executives can sleep at night.”

State Sen. Arthur Ellis (D-28) criticized Maryland law, which does not require that workers at facilities employing 50 or more people receive 90 days notice of a closure. “We’re prepared to introduce legislation in January to turn these recommendations into requirements,” Ellis said in a release, “so that our hard-working men and women do not have to beg for this company to treat you like human beings, to treat you with respect. We will take action in Annapolis to fix the holes in the system.”

UNFI will close the Shoppers stores at 8212 Liberty Road in Baltimore and 7858 Quarterfield Road in Severn by the end of January 2020. Two northern Virginia stores in Alexandria and Manassas will also close.

Here's the list of affected Shoppers stores in Maryland and Virginia and the companies they are being sold to, as provided by the UFCW:

Five Shoppers locations being sold to Compare Foods by Jan. 2:

• 5600 The Alameda, Baltimore
• 6500 Eastern Ave, Baltimore
• 3831 Bladensburg Road, Colmar Manor
• 4801 Marlboro Pike, Capitol Heights
• 7051 Martin Luther King Jr. Highway, Landover

Six Shoppers locations being sold to Lidl by Jan. 2:

• 2371 Solomons Island Road, Annapolis
• 5722 Ritchie Highway, Brooklyn Park
• 6111 Livingston Road, Oxon Hill
• 6881 New Hampshire Avenue, Takoma Park
• 2201 Randolph Road, Wheaton
• 9274 Old Keene Mill Road, Burke

Two Shoppers locations being sold to McKay's on Dec. 18, 2020:

• 22599 MacArthur Boulevard, California
• 1170 Smallwood Drive W, Waldorf

Four Shoppers locations closing by end of January 2020:

• 8212 Liberty Road, Baltimore
• 7858 Quarterfield Road, Severn
• 10864 Sudley Manor Drive, Manassas, Virginia
• 3801 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, Virginia

Related: Grocery Chain Closing 2 MD Stores, Lidl Buys 4 Stores

The Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO Community Services Agency will hold a Resource Fair for Shoppers workers from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Jan. 11 at the UFCW Local 400 Headquarters, 8400 Corporate Drive, Suite 200, Landover.

Local 400 is bargaining with UNFI over the terms of the sales and closures, including severance pay, continuing health care coverage, and job search assistance and retraining.