UPDATE Westport’s Shaw’s Supermarket on Post Road East will close on Jan. 10, a company spokeswoman said today. The shopping center owner said a new food retailer, The Fresh Market, is expected to take its place in about a year.
Shaw’s will close on Jan. 10 with a new food retailer reported likely to take its place in about a year. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
The West Bridgewater, Mass.-based company has been the anchor tenant in the shopping center at 605 Post Road East since taking over from Grand Union in 2001.
Judy Chond, a Shaw’s spokeswoman, confirmed a WestportNow report of a January closing and said the store will shut down Jan. 10 with about 90 employees affected.
“We worked diligently with the property owner but could not come to a mutually acceptable agreement,” she said.
Jay Kowalsky, a spokesman for the shopping plaza owner, said they expected to conclude a rental agreement with Greensboro, N.C.-based The Fresh Market.
The 84-store chain has stores mainly in the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest and has announced expansion into New England with its first store in Hingham, Mass., a Boston suburb.
Chond said Shaw’s will work closely with Westport-based Local 371 of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union to address collective bargaining issues.
She also said Shaw’s was working with the Department of Labor’s support systems and rapid response team to help employees who will be out of work. This will involve job seeking training.
Kowalsky said he expected renovations to take about a year, although the lease with The Fresh Market has yet to be concluded.
Westport is already home to chain specialty food stores Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods Market, and Balducci’s as well as Super Stop & Shop.
The loss of the anchor tenant in the shopping center is likely to have a negative impact on the smaller neighboring retailers. But the closure after the holiday shopping season should soften the blow.
The closing of Shaw’s follows word that Greenwood Publishing in Westport will close in December with the loss of 150 jobs. (See WestportNow Oct. 6, 2008)
However, Westport’s economy in recent months has also seen added retail jobs with the opening of Crate & Barrel and HomeGoods on Post Road East. HomeGoods took over space formerly occupied by Toys ‘R’ Us.
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Dave Matlow contributed reporting for this story.
With a bit of luck they should be able to squeeze at least two, if not three, banks into that space.
So true.
This will be a great loss to those of us who came over from the Grand Union but more importantly I feel as if I am losing friends who have always been very helpful,.. may they find new employment very soon. God bless.
The retail market has been deteriorating in a manner which has forced many to make cuts, even as big as this one.
How can consumer confidence begin to regain its footing in our country when unemployment rates continue to break record numbers,
and our favorite places to shop, or eat,
are failing to make ends meet?
This cycle seems to be quite a vicious pattern. Its elementary economics, when the imbalance of supply vs demand can’t gain control when all are “pinching pennies” (or making those budget cuts), to make ends meet.
Yes good luck to them all.
The inside scuttlebutt is, they couldn
Shawly not?
I’m sorry, but at the prices they charged I think they could have double bagged and still done fine.
In the mean time Trader Joes is just down the way for many items, and the prices are reasonable.
Two different companies,
two different styles of business
Seems Trader Joe plays the field very well.
The outrageous prices would indicate they’re struggle, it’s not like this super market was ubergourmet. At least we have other locations not too far.
Strange, seems this shopping center has a pretty hefty turn-over of retail /restaurants. (besides a few well like veterans.)