C&S Asked to Delay Warehouse Closures

JON SPRINGER

WOODBRIDGE, N.J. — A commission including local representatives and economists here has asked C&S Wholesale Grocers for a 90-day moratorium on the imminent closure of five Pathmark warehouses, saying the time could be used to study alternatives to the closure.

C&S, Keane, N.H., has told workers the warehouses would close as soon as Feb. 6, with the business shifted to another C&S facility in Harrisburg, Pa., as a cost-saving measure.

The commission cited a report from the Center for Labor and Community Research indicating that the closure would cost 1,300 jobs directly and more than 2,100 in other sectors of the local economy. Other impacts include millions of dollars in losses of local, state and federal taxes; and millions in lost sales and profits for Essex, Union and Middlesex counties.

C&S said it would close the facilities, which mainly provide groceries for Pathmark stores, only days before Pathmark’s owner A&P declared bankruptcy in December. Federal bankruptcy court on Wednesday granted A&P permission to reject its contract with Grocery Haulers Inc., the company that provided trucking services for the Woodbridge facilities.

A C&S spokesman was not immediately available for comment.