A&P Sues Over Sales Deals Gone Sour

The song of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A&P) may be ended, but the melody lingers on: The bankrupt grocer has brought suit against two successful bidders for former A&P supermarkets in Westchester County, N.Y., which now say they don’t want to buy the store leases, according to a published report.

Shanghai Enterprises bid $928,000 for a store in Hastings-on-Hudson, while Ruben Luna offered $2.4 million for a location in Millwood, but now both are backing out of their respective deals, The Journal News, which covers news in New York state’s Lower Hudson Valley, reported.

In response, A&P filed an “adversary complaint” with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., seeking damages of $1.2 million, including inventory costs, from Shanghai, and at least $2.4 million from Luna.

A lawyer representing Luna said that landlord of the Millwood property had formally objected to the sale and requested an exorbitant amount of money to withdraw the objection. Shanghai didn’t provide a specific reason, although Hastings officials noted that the company has had difficulty finding a tenant for the store, which must continue to operate as a supermarket, per land-use regulations.