A&P Gets OK to Sell 8 Stores

In its continuing efforts to sell off all of its stores, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A&P) received approval this week from the court overseeing its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection proceedings to sell eight grocery stores, according to a published report.

Judge Robert Drain, of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., OK'd the sales of the stores to CVS Pharmacy and PSK Supermarkets., among others, The Wall Street Journal reported, adding that motions on seven more sales – some objected to by local unions – were adjourned until later in the month.

So far, Montvale, N.J.-based A&P has secured buyers for only about 190 of its almost 300 stores. While many of the associates at the sold stores will stay on under the new owners, thousands of employees stand to lose their jobs when the unsold locations close by Thanksgiving.

Among the sales approved by Judge Drain this week were that of a Pathmark and a Waldbaum’s, both in New York, for about $22 million to PSK Supermarkets, and a Yonkers, N.Y., store to CVS. Referring to a petition with more than 1,000 signatures, a lawyer for the city of Yonkers requested that the judge not approve the latter sale, since it would leave the surrounding community without a full-service supermarket, but the judge overruled the motion.