Stop & Shop Update: Store Closures Across New England

Stop & Shop is closing 32 stores across New England by November 2, 2024. The company says workers will be notified at least 4 weeks before closure, but the company has refused to say exactly how many workers will be affected by the closures. 

Photo by Mike Mozart

They also wouldn’t say what Stop & Shop’s plan is for the many workers who will be displaced or potentially laid off from the closures. Even if workers aren’t laid off, the company’s profits depend on at least some workers deciding to quit due to their new commutes. 

Store closures pose major problems for workers and their communities. Not only can workers be transferred to far-away stores at the whim of the company, but closures can also produce food deserts.

Stop & Shop is owned by Ahold Delhaze, a Dutch company that made $925 million in profits last quarter. CEO Frans Muller was paid over $7 million in 2022. 

The workers across these stores are represented by the UFCW. We can stand up to Ahold’s corporate greed that puts profit over people, but only if we’re united. That’s why EW4D is fighting to change the way we bargain our union contracts in grocery. Instead of bargaining separately, we want to take on Kroger, Albertsons, and Ahold all at once to win a national agreement that raises wages, benefits, and working conditions for all workers. 

Some locals are already practicing coordinated bargaining, like the 2019 Stop & Shop strike across UFCW Locals 328, 371, 919, 1445 and 1459 that took 31,000 workers out on the picket line for 11 days — and won. We saw what it looks like when UFCW members stand together against the boss. Now imagine what it would look like if nearly 1 million UFCW members stood together against the “Big Three.”

United, we can take on corporate greed. Contact EW4D to learn more.