News & Information - Town of Greenburgh

A&P is negotiating the sale of 18 of its Lower Hudson Valley stores to three competitors and will auction off 12 others as part of the company’s latest sweeping bankruptcy plan, officials said Monday.
The company also announced that it would be closing 25 of its lowest performing stores across the country, with none of those closings affecting operations in the Lower Hudson Valley. Still, many of the stores shoppers are used to will likely be switching hands in the future.
The shake-up wasn’t so surprising, said Harrison resident Peter Brown, who was shopping at the A&P in Rye Brook Monday.
“All you have to do is walk in here and take a look at the store and you’ll see it’s a mess,” he said. “The floors are filthy, the place is falling apart and they never did anything.”
His wife, Ellen, added, “Actually we’re surprised that it lasted as long as it did.”
Lawyers for the 156-year-old national supermarket chain appeared in front of a packed federal bankruptcy courtroom in White Plains where they made a case for their Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. While the company has annual revenue of $5.5 billion, it’s also been burning cash at an average rate of about $14 million a month, officials said.
This is A&P’s second bankruptcy in five years. High pension costs as well as labor provisions, such as collective bargaining agreements that require A&P to layoff workers by seniority and allow laid-off employees with more seniority to take a job from a more junior worker at another store, have contributed to high costs, company officials said.
If the supermarket chain is unsuccessful in selling off its stores in its second bankruptcy, A&P “will be left with no choice but to liquidate their business in a fire sale and piecemeal fashion,” chief restructuring officer Christopher McGarry said in documents lawyers filed with bankruptcy court.
Among A&P stores in Westchester and Putnam counties, Acme Markets has put in a bid to acquire 16 of locations, while Key Food Stores said it wants the A&P in Harrison.
Meanwhile, Stop & Shop has made a move on the Mount Kisco store -- the chain’s most profitable store in the country with operating cash flow of more than $9 million last fiscal year. Lawyers said there is “significant interest” in Mount Kisco and the company will consider auctioning off the store separately if officials believe they can get a higher sales price from another bidder.
The Lower Hudson Valley is home to about 10 percent of A&P’s nearly 300 stores, which include Pathmark and Waldbaums,
Apart from the 120 stores for which A&P has received bids, the company said it will start a campaign to aggressively market most of the remaining stores, including 12 spread in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland.
With other chains having recently shuttered, such as D’Agostino’s, shoppers said they hoped there would be a future for their local supermarket.
“Well they might continue hopefully with this store with the D’Agostino going out and the other stores, there’s no real supermarket, so I think they need a supermarket here,” Peter Brown said.
A&P officials said due to their cash flow problems, they weren’t able to properly invest in upgrades to their stores – a condition that several shoppers said they noticed.
Rich Niemynski, a Greenwich, Connecticut, resident who was shopping at the Pathmark in Port Chester Monday said if those investments had been made, the company might be in better financial shape.
“If they cleaned it up and got better stuff they’d be packed,” he said.
A&P has 30 stores in our region.
The A&P in Mount Kisco may be sold to Stop&Shop.
A&P stores slated to become Acme Markets
610 Columbus Ave., Thornwood
660 Mclean Ave., Yonkers
3105 E. Main St., Mohegan Lake
2005 Albany Post Road, Croton-on-Hudson
1511 Route 22, Brewster
1233 Nepperhan Ave., Yonkers
Route 22 and Route 138, Goldens Bridge
12-14 Cedar St., Bronxville
422 Old Post Road, Bedford
3 Village Center, Mahopac
261 S. Ridge St., Rye Brook
1886 Pleasantville Road, Briarcliff Manor
777 White Plains Road, Eastchester
103 Knollwood Road, Greenburgh
1366 E. Main St., Shrub Oak
23 Quaker Ridge Road, New Rochelle
A&P store slated to become Stop & Shop
195 N. Bedford Road, Mount Kisco
A&P store slated to become Key Food Stores
355 Halsted Ave., Harrison
A&P and Pathmark stores looking for owners
3101 Route 22, Patterson
805 Mamaroneck Ave., Mamaroneck
668 Central Ave., Scarsdale
20 Welcher Ave., Peekskill
132 Bedford Road, Katonah
100 Triangle Center, Yorktown
230 Saw Mill Road, Millwood
87 Main St., Hastings-on-Hudson
14 Lake Ridge Plaza, Valley Cottage
1757 Central Park Ave., Yonkers
130 Midland Ave., Port Chester
2450 Central Park Ave., Yonkers

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The A & P on Knollwood Road will be sold to Acme Markets according to lohud.com. No reports about the Scarsdale A & P.

Hoa Nguyen and Clarice Silber, The Journal News 9:44 p.m. EDT July 20, 2015