Whole Foods Slashing 1,500 Jobs: Will Montclair Workers Suffer Layoffs?

Whole Foods Market announced Monday it would be cutting approximately 1,500 jobs with the hopes of cutting costs for its products and adding technology to its stores.

The Montclair store – located on Bloomfield Avenue – has been in town for 20 years, according to the Whole Foods website.

In a statement from co-CEO Walter Robb, the 1,500 job reduction marks approximately 1.6-percent of the company’s workforce after it added 9,000 new jobs in the past year.

“Whole Foods Market will reduce a number of positions over the next eight weeks,” the statement said. “[Whole Foods] anticipates many of the reductions to be managed through natural attrition and expects a significant percentage of affected Team Members will find other jobs from the nearly 2,000 open positions across the company or via new jobs created from the more than 100 new stores in development.”

Whole Foods stated the reduction was part of “its ongoing commitment to lower prices for its customers and invest in technology upgrades while improving its cost structure.”

Robb’s statement didn’t include information on which locations might suffer layoffs.

SUPERMARKET LAYOFFS

It’s been a tough couple of months for supermarket workers in North Jersey.

In July, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Inc. (A&P) - which owns and manages several supermarket chains including Pathmark - filed for bankruptcy.

Workers at several of the company’s stores – including Montclair – received notice that their jobs may be phased out unless a new owner purchases the locations and chooses to retain the employees.

• See related article: Montclair Supermarket Workers May Lose Their Jobs

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