ShopRite Plans Purchase of Timonium Superfresh Store

The Superfresh grocery store in Timonium will be converted to a ShopRite food market this summer, according to a plan by a New Jersey-based company that reached a tentative agreement to buy the store last week.

Village Super Market Inc., of Springfield, NJ, plans to after it finalizes the proposed purchase, probably in mid-June, according to a statement by Village Chief Executive Officer James Sumas. Sumas’ company currently operates 26 other ShopRite stores in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.

The conversion of the Timonium store is part of a larger transaction in which Village and a consortium partner propose to buy a total of 10 Superfresh locations in Maryland and the District of Columbia, according to Sumas’ statement. 

ShopRite’s announcement failed, however, to clear up questions about the fate of about 100 Superfresh employees currently at work at the store. 

ShopRite spokeswoman Karen Meleta said Monday that “it was too early to tell” whether the Superfresh workers at Timonium would be offered jobs with the new ShopRite. Precisely 98 workers at the store received notices in early May that their jobs would be terminated as early as July 6, according to the Maryland state labor agency.

Any announcement on hiring practices or policies is being deferred until after the official closing of the sale transaction, which is currently expected around June 14, Meleta said.

The unionized Superfresh employees are represented by United Food & Commercial Workers Local 27, but President George Murphy Jr. could not be reached for comment. The new ShopRite store will also be unionized, the company said.

Sale of the Timonium store—and the nine other Superfresh locations—is subject to the approval of a U.S. bankruptcy court in White Plains, NY. In late 2010, Superfresh’s parent company, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. or A&P, sought bankruptcy court protection, citing high operating costs and heavy debts.

The bankruptcy court in April approved the auction sale of a total of 25 Superfresh stores. A&P spokesman Scot Hoffman said last week that a consortium of Village Super Market Inc. and Mrs. Green’s Management Corp. was the winning bidder in an auction for nine stores in Maryland and one in the District of Columbia. 

The 10 stores are the current Superfresh locations in Timonium, North Baltimore (41st St. and Hickory), Parkville, Arnold, Cambridge, Chestertown, Charlestown, Brunswick, White Oak and Washington, D.C.

The White Oak store will also be taken over by ShopRite, but there are currently no plans for any additional new ShopRite outlets in Maryland, Maleta said.

All of these sales are subject to the approval of the federal bankruptcy court. A&P expects to submit the recent auction sales for approval at a hearing scheduled for June 14, Hoffman said.

Still undecided are the fates of a number of other Maryland Superfresh stores that were offered for sale in the auction, but where no winning bidder was identified by A&P. Included among those are Superfresh stores in Arbutus, Elkridge, Frederick, Glen Burnie, Perry Hall, Towson and others.

The Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR) announced last week that Superfresh had provided notices that it intends to eliminate the jobs of almost 1,500 hourly workers is the state.

Precisely 1,477 Maryland Superfresh workers have been notified that their jobs will be eliminated, according to DLLR spokesman Mike Raia. The official notices state that all the jobs could be eliminated as early as July 6, Raia said.