Dive Brief:

• Mariano's, a supermarket chain owned by Milwaukee-based Roundy's, has agreed to buy 11 Chicago-area Dominick's stores for $36 million.
• The transaction comes as a Dec. 28 deadline looms. That's the date on which Safeway says it will shutter any Chicago Dominick's it has been unable to sell.
• There are 57 stores still facing closure. Jewel-Osco had earlier agreed to buy four of the supermarkets.

Dive Insight:

We would applaud any news that suggests Dominick's workers won't be unemployed come January. But Mariano's has said it will fire all of the workers at the stores it purchases, and then invite them to apply for work at Mariano's. It's unclear to us why that might be necessary, but we remain hopeful that Chicago shoppers will see familiar faces when they visit the stores next year.