Shaw's To Lay Off Nearly 1,000

The Shaw's grocery store chain, which is selling all of its Connecticut locations, says it will cut 967 jobs at those stores.

Employees affected work at stores in East Hartford, Manchester, Wallingford, New Haven, Clinton, Southbury, Willimantic and Fairfield, according to the State Department of Labor.

The stores will close on March 31, but Shaw's says the layoffs won't take affect until April 13.

Five of the stores are being sold to Shop Rite. One is becoming a Price Rite and several will become Stop & Shop stores. The Shaw's stores in New Haven and Manchester do not have potential buyers. They currently employ nearly 260 people, all of whom will be out of work.
 
Jo Johanns, who has been a manager at the Manchester Shaw's for 11 years, said says it'll be hard to say goodbye to the people she's worked with.
 
"What's next for me?" Johanns said. "I don't know for sure. Like I said, I'll leave it in the hands of God."
 
The closings will also be inconvenient for customers who are left looking for a new supermarket at which to shop.
 
"It's just sad when you see businesses close like this and it's your neighborhood," Valerie Vetere, of Manchester, said.

Shop Rite said it might hire back some of the supermarkets' employees.

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