Safeway to cut nearly 400 corporate positionsSafeway to cut nearly 400 corporate positions

Albertsons plans to cut spending by $1.5 billion over the next three years, and those cuts have begun to roll out in the form of nearly 400 layoffs of Safeway corporate employees and more than 100 associates at a Safeway store in San Francisco.

Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices filed in California and Arizona on Jan. 14 show that Albertsons, the Idaho-based parent company of Safway, plans to cut 225 positions in Phoenix and 156 across two locations in Pleasanton, California. 

Those layoffs are set to take place on Feb. 22.

An Albertsons spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment. 

Albertsons announced layoffs at its corporate and division support offices in mid-January, but gave no specifics on how many positions would be eliminated.

WARN reports also revealed that 112 associates at a Safeway in the Fillmore district of San Francisco were laid off Friday due to the store’s closure. 

The store closure and layoffs come in the wake of Albertsons’ failed merger with grocery giant Kroger. Following the rejection of the plan by courts in Washington and Oregon, Albertsons pulled out of the deal and is now suing its would-be partner for billions. 

In early January, Albertsons held its first earnings call since announcing the Kroger acquisition plans in 2022, but CEO Vivek Sankaran gave no details on where the grocery chain planned to cut spending.

Sankaran said Albertsons plans to provide further details about the cuts at its Q4 conference call in April.