Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
A lone shopping cart sits out in the parking lot of the Albertson's on Mary and Fremont avenues, which will close at the end of the month.
Mary Avenue store set to close
Building has housed a grocery store for more than 30 years
By Jana Seshadri
Sunnyvale will soon witness yet another effect of the economic downturn. Per an announcement by Albertson's Inc., its food store at 3156 S. Mary Ave., which employs 30 "associates," will close its doors at 6 p.m. on Jan. 31.
"The store has been underperforming for a very, very long time," said Stacia Levenfeld, public affairs manager for Albertson's.
According to Levenfeld, earlier last year the company conducted thorough sales and earnings reviews of all its stores across the country to eliminate stores that were not performing up to standard. The studies resulted in an anticipated 165 store closings nationwide. All the company's efforts to improve its market positions with sales and marketing promotions failed.
The Sunnyvale store, at the intersection of Mary and Fremont avenues, will be the seventh to close in Northern California since the company's decision last July. Management has discouraged store employees from talking to the press during the transition.
Another Albertson's store at the intersection of E. El Camino Real and Remington Drive, a less-than-2-mile drive from the Mary Avenue store, is undergoing renovation while remaining in business and will have a grand re-opening on Jan. 30. According to Levenfeld, the company is working out ways to absorb the 30 associates and move them into the new store, unless they opt otherwise.
Levenfeld said some of their associates might not want to move to the new store for any number of reasons, the commute being just one. The company is also looking at ways to place employees in other Albertson's stores if they are unwilling to move to the other Sunnyvale location.
As to the Mary Avenue building itself, Levenfeld said that the company is working with Sunnyvale's Economic Development Department to place a new tenant in the location, which has housed a grocery store since January 1968.
Karen Davis, manager of economic development for the city of Sunnyvale, said the property that the store sits on now is currently zoned as "retail," which means that the owner of the complex can sublet the store to any commercial business. It could house a grocery store again or any other retail store or services company that would cater to that neighborhood, she said. The city does not interfere with the property owner's final decision, as long as the guidelines are met, she said.
"A year ago, businesses would just snatch up an opportunity like this," Davis said. "But, now, it really depends on the economy and on the market."
In late 1999, Albertson's Inc. and American Stores Company merged and the name of the store at that location was changed from Lucky's to Albertson's. Albertson's Northern California, which is a division of Albertson's Inc., operates 187 stores. Albertson's receives annual revenues of approximately $37 billion. The company, based in Boise, Idaho, operates more than 2,500 retail stores in 36 states across the country.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
