Faced with miles of empty aisles and bare shelves, managers slammed the door on the Long Island City Pathmark Supermarket on August 24–one day earlier than announced.
“There was nothing left to sell, so we shut down the operation sooner than we expected,” a store manager told the Gazette. “It was time to shut the doors.”
The front doors of the mall will remain locked until another tenant takes over the space vacated by Pathmark, the manager said. “Customers who need access to Singa’s Pizza or an insurance agent inside the mall should enter through a Dunkin’ Donuts store at the site,” the manager said. “The donut shop has its own, direct entrance to the parking lot.” An underground parking garage and an elevator leading from the garage to the mall will remain open during the day, but will be shut down each evening, the manager said.
Customers at a Queens County Savings Bank that was located inside the Pathmark store may transfer their account(s) to the nearest branch at 31-42 Steinway St. in Astoria, between the municipal parking lot and Starbuck’s, or to any other branch, a bank spokesperson said.
For more information or to locate the Queens County Savings Bank branch most convenient for you, call 718-545- 5115 or click on: www.queenscountysavings.com, the spokesperson said.
The Pathmark Super Center at 42-02 Northern Blvd. was opened in 1974 by the New Jersey based Supermarkets General Corporation as one of the first supermarkets in New York City to offer “big bundle” items at discount prices. The Great Atlantic Pacific Tea Company (AP) subsequently purchased the Pathmark chain from the struggling Supermarkets General Corp.
Thirty-eight years after opening its doors, the Long Island City Pathmark store was facing dwindling sales – and its employees were facing an uncertain future.
The Pathmark workers walked a tightrope since 2010, wondering if a bankruptcy filing by AP was putting their jobs in jeopardy.
In August 2010, AP officials filed a request with a bankruptcy judge, asking the court to extend its exclusive rules to propose a Chapter 11 plan until January 2012. An AP spokesperson said, at that time, that the once mighty supermarket operator would have to achieve “substantial cost savings through labor cost reduction”, to successfully emerge from the Chapter 11 filing.
After that filing, AP submitted proposals to local unions that included a list of amendments to employee contracts. The amendments included a “general” five-year wage freeze, wage reductions from several local unions and collective bargaining agents, revisions of the way stores are closed and revisions of the way layoffs and severance payments are handled.
Employees at the Long Island City store told the Gazette they “gave back” half their vacation and sick days and agreed to the wage freeze because they believed that would help to keep stores open and secure their jobs.
“Here we are,” disgruntled workers said. “We gave back everything and they turned around and closed this store.”
Some workers at the Long Island City store were given the option to transfer to other Pathmark locations, a union shop steward said. “Full-time workers with less than five years on the job were offered part-time jobs at other locations and people with more than five years were given the option to transfer to fulltime jobs at stores chosen by AP,” the
