Safeway Buys G&G Market

Safeway purchased both G&G Market stores, in Petaluma and Santa Rosa, Calif., following G&G's 50-plus years of service to California's Sonoma County.

The stores will be rebannered as Safeway when the transaction, terms of which were not disclosed, completes by the end of the year. The stores will be closed for a short time while the transition takes place.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway has agreed to hire all 250 G&G employees at “the same compensation or better,” said G&G CEO Teejay Lowe in a local news report. The sale was precipitate by the age of the company’s four owners, ranging from 65 to 83, Lowe noted.

“It’s a good time for them to retire,” he added in the news report. “[The sale] was a decision that the entire family supports.”

Both G&G and Safeway, the latter owned by Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons, “are working together to ensure a smooth transition for store employees and customers,” according to a press release.

G&G was founded in 1963 by Lowe’s father Robert Gong and Gong’s father-in-law Gee Kai Gong.