Dive Summary:

• Nearly 6,000 Dominick’s employees are facing layoffs as Safeway plans to close remaining Chicago stores on Dec. 28.
• Safeway announced its exit from Chicago and said it would sell remaining store locations - but only 15 store locations have been purchased thus far.
• Jewel-Osco purchased four of the brick-and-mortar locations and now employs nearly 450 former Dominick’s store associates.

Dive Insight:

Safeway operated 72 Chicago-area store locations prior to announcing its exit from the city just two months ago in October. Following the Dec. 28 deadline, Safeway plans to lay off any workers which are not hired by independent buyers of the 57 remaining Dominick’s locations.