Albertsons To Shutter Most Florida Stores, Oakland Park Store To Remain
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The Albertsons supermarket in Oakland Park will soon be almost unique in Florida. By June, it will be just one of four Albertsons left in the state after the company announced Tuesday it would close 13 stores, including one in Key West, as well as a distribution center in PLant City.
Albertsons spokesperson Christine Wilcox said employees at the affected stores and the distribution center were notified Tuesday that the closings would take place.
The Key West store will start it's liquidation sale Wednesday, and is expected to be closed by April 28th. The remaining 12 stores, which are scattered across the West coast, central Florida, and the Treasure Coast, will start liquidating May 9th and are expected to be closed a month later.
An estimated 1100 people will be affected by the closings.
"We are working with associates on their individual situations to determine what options may be available to them in our company," Wilcox said in an e-mail Tuesday afternoon.
The virtual abandonment of the state by Albertsons will leave just 4 of the chain's stores operating in the state.In addition to the Oakland Park Store, which is the only South Florida location, stores in Clearwater, Largo, and Altamonte Springs will continue to operate.
Once a major presence in Florida, Albertsons has been scaling back in the state for years, unable to gain traction against Publix, the state's dominant food chain.
Albertsons tried modernizing existing stores and pulling out of whole sections of the state to concentrate on others, but was not able find a formula that worked.
