A MAJOR discount retailer has closed half of its single-site stores due to poor performance.
Gabe’s announced the closure of two out of every four stores in southern New Jersey.
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Along with that, the chain is laying off 52 employees starting Aug. 12, a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act document states.
The stores in Cherry Hill and Mount Laurel were selected to close six years after their arrival.
In the WARN document, Anna Ballard, senior corporate counsel at Gabriel Brothers, the parent company of Gabe’s, described the reason for the closure.
Ballard warned customers that each location suffered from “poor sales performance and [has been] operating at a consistent loss of profit.”
Ballard specified that 28 workers will be lost at Cherry Hill and 24 will be laid off at Mount Laurel.
They will each be paid and continue to receive benefits for 90 days, with the last payment scheduled for August 9, the document states.
Each affected employee will receive one week of severance pay for each full year of employment with the discount chain.
The store closures will leave just two other locations in New Jersey, one in Mays Landing and one in Vineland.
These locations will not be affected by the closures.
Gabe’s has stores in 20 states across the country.
US Sun has reached out to the network for comment.
Gabe’s isn’t the only company struggling with moves that impact profits.
This week Home Depot released its financial report for the first quarter of the fiscal year that showed a weak performance in terms of sales compared to the same period last year.
The home improvement chain reported sales of $36.6 billion, down 2.3% from last year, with U.S. comparable sales also down 3.2%.
However, CEO Ted Decker firmly believes that weather is to blame for much of the losses.
“The quarter was impacted by a delayed spring start and continued weakness in certain larger discretionary projects,” he said in a statement.
Stores selling at least $1,000 will close, says CEO
Dollar Tree, the parent company of Family Dollar, revealed that it would close about 1,000 stores over the next few years.
The company announced in March that it would close stores after the value of the discount retailer it acquired nearly a decade ago plummeted.
Dollar Tree plans to close about 600 Family Dollar stores in the first half of this year.
This will be followed by the closure of 370 Family Dollar and 30 Dollar Tree stores in the coming years.
The discount store chain also indicated that sales are being affected by the cost of living crisis and inflation.
But USA today added that Dollar Tree was also hit by reduced government benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
This has left families struggling to balance their finances, with up to $250 less per month.
Meanwhile, in the restaurant industry, Red Lobster customers are demanding refunds on gift cards amid bankruptcy fears.
This comes after the seafood chain abruptly closed 87 locations across the country overnight.
Around 6,500 employees would have been affected by the unexpected change.
The network’s financial failures were previously attributed to an attempt to increase traffic in the form of the $20 “Unlimited Shrimp” deal.
However, the deal was so effective that it was seen as a “key factor” in the chain’s third-quarter losses of $11 million in 2023, according to Thai Union Group CFO Ludovic Regis Henri Garnier.
Fans are mourning the recent closures, with one saying “RIP Red Lobster” as they fear the worst for the remaining locations.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
