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Bashas' plans to close more stores
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A gentleman walks in front of the Ray and Cooper Bashas' store that is closing on July 21. June 30, 2009.
Darryl Webb, Tribune
Bashas’ supermarkets will shutter more locations this summer, including a 13-year-old store at Cooper and Ray roads in Chandler and one in Gilbert at Baseline and Greenfield roads.
Bashas' holding its ground in grocery market
Bashas' lays off 350 workers, cites costs
For competitive reasons, officials at the Chandler-based company won’t say specifically how many stores will close nor will they identify the locations.
“I can tell you that it’s about a handful,” said Kristy Nied, a Bashas’ spokeswoman.
The stores at Cooper and Ray and Baseline and Greenfield will close Tuesday, July 21. The rest of the closures are also set to occur in mid-July.
Nied said the stores had been underperforming and maintaining their operation was impractical given factors like the economic downturn, a tough local market, and a campaign against the company by the United Food and Commercial Workers union.
The UFCW has been doing battle with Bashas’ over the representation of its approximately 12,000-member work force.
In February, Bashas’ officials said they would pull the plug on five stores, including two Bashas’ in Mesa at Southern Avenue and Val Vista Drive and Baseline and Dobson roads.
That followed an earlier announcement that the chain would cut 350 workers — or 3 percent of its work force — including personnel at the company’s stores, warehouse and administrative offices.
“You’ve got a very, very competitive market in terms of grocery stores,” said Tom Rex, associate director at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. “It’s been that way for years in the Phoenix area.”
Adding to the industry’s pain is the glut of foreclosures in neighborhoods that support grocery stores, as well as cuts in consumer spending, Rex said.
Bob Kammrath, a Phoenix-based retail and real estate analyst, said Bashas’ seems to be alone as far as closures are concerned. He noted that larger rivals like Fry’s and Safeway have larger pools of credit and are likely more able to ride out economic downturns.
He added that Bashas’ rivals also operate in multiple states and are therefore less vulnerable to the economic turmoil that disproportionately affected Arizona.
Kammrath criticized the company for closing stores in a piecemeal fashion rather than settling on a number and pulling the plug all at once. He said that’s dragging the process out and conveys uncertainty to employees and customers.
“It just looks like they haven’t thought this out very well,” he said.
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