Oceanside Waldbaum’s to close

Corporate owner, A&P, files for bankruptcy

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For the second time in five years, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, also known as A&P, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and as a result, the Waldbaum’s at 3620 Long Beach Road, in Oceanside, which the company owns, will close in the next few months.

A&P, which has nearly 300 supermarkets and other stores under several brands, including A&P, Waldbaum’s, SuperFresh, Pathmark, Food Basics, the Food Emporium and Best Cellars, will close 25 stores — five in the near future — put hundreds of others up for sale and bring an end to its storied 156-year history.

Also among the stores slated to close first is a Pathmark in Baldwin. In the meantime, according to the company, these stores will remain open and stocked.

A&P, a division of Montvale-Para Holdings Inc., whose majority owner is Mount Kellett Capital Partners LP, has been facing stiff competition from Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Three major companies will buy 120 of the company’s 296 stores, or 40 percent of its holdings, for about $600 million. Those buyers include Acme Markets Inc., which owns the Safeway and Albertsons grocery stores; Stop & Shop Supermarket Company LLC; and the Key Food Co-operative Inc.

Stop & Shop has agreed to acquire 25 of the stores in New York and New Jersey for $146 million, including two local Waldbaum’s, at 905 Atlantic Ave. in Baldwin, and at 85 E. Park Ave. in Long Beach; and two local Pathmarks, at 4055 Merrick Road in Seaford, and at 460 Franklin Ave. in Franklin Square.

A&P is trying to find buyers for another other 150 stores. It would like to sell them as a group, and is planning an auction, according to court papers. King Kullen has said it plans to bid on some of them.

The agreements will be subject to bankruptcy court approval.

Approximately 96 percent of A&P’s 28,500 employees are unionized. According to court documents, the buyers will not take on the bargaining agreements or the pensions of those workers.

According to its filing, the company owes $2.3 billion, but has assets of of $1.6 billion. Its chief restructuring officer, Christopher McGarry, explained that after the 2012 bankruptcy filing, A&P began an extensive advertising campaign that featured lower prices, but never met its targets.

George Huntington Hartford and George Gilman founded the company as a mail order tea and spice business in 1859, and opened its first warehouse at the corner of Vesey and Church streets in Manhattan City that same year, according to the company’s website.