Grocery Wars Turn Small Chains Into Battlefield Casualties<br />This month, Fairway executives met with the company’s roughly 3,500 workers, most of whom are<br />unionized, to unveil a set of new initiatives — like investments in a new marketing campaign.<br />Like businesses in other industries — including Toys “R” Us, which announced liquidation plans this month —<br />many failing supermarkets are owned by private equity firms that have loaded the companies up with debt.<br />This month, the parent company of the Southern stores Winn-Dixie<br />and Bi-Lo said it would file for Chapter 11 protection by the end of the month, and close 94 stores.<br />The company filed for bankruptcy protection last month, another casualty in a grocery war<br />that is raging across the country, from tiny mountainous hamlets like Chestertown to the gentrified enclaves of Brooklyn and Los Angeles.<br />The private equity firm Lone Star has cashed out $980 million in dividends from<br />Winn-Dixie’s parent company since 2011, according to Moody’s Investors Service.<br />“The private equity owners try to drain every last ounce of blood from these<br />companies,” said John T. Niccollai, president of Local 464A of the U. F.C.<br />Membership in United Food and Commercial Workers, the largest grocery union, has dropped<br />more than 9 percent since 2002, to about 1.2 million, according to the Labor Department.
