Most Foodtown Employees Keep Comparable Jobs as Store Becomes Stop & Shop in Point Pleasant Beach

Most Norkus Foodtown employees at the Point Pleasant Beach store will work comparable jobs for the store when it becomes Stop & Shop today, according to an employee working on Sunday afternoon.

"I'm probably the only one leaving," said John Shipley, 28, a Point Beach resident who has worked split shifts at Foodtown for five years.

Shipley said he has been designated a "part-time employee" even though he works 50 to 55 hours per week. He receives part-time benefits.

Stop & Shop offered him a part-time job that might be as few as 12 hours per week or as many as 30 to 35 hours per week.

"I turned it down," Shipley said. "I have a son on the way in August, which is very cool, but the timing is bad with all of this going on. There's no chance I would make what I'm making now by going over to Stop & Shop."

The Stop & Shop offer is simply not enough to support his growing family, including the couple's first child, Shipley said.

"But I'll land on my feet," he said, smiling. "I've been looking for a job. I'll be OK."

He said as far as he knows other employees, including his brother and even some longtime senior employees, have been offered comparable jobs and are taking them.

They had technically been laid off and had to re-apply for their jobs before getting re-hired.

Shipley said he was in a unique position because he worked from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m as a dairy department employee in the union representing most of the staff.

Employees of both Foodtown and Stop and Shop are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW).

In that position, he earned $11.95 per hour.

Then he worked 5 to 10 p.m. as an evening night manager six nights a week, which is a non-union position, earning $19 per hour on most days, but earned $21 per hour on Sundays.

Many of the store's shelves were bare on Sunday afternoon, as Stop and Shop is poised to take over, add new signs and, eventually, lots of new food and merchandise.

Stop & Shop expects to shut down the Point Beach store today for less than a week for re-branding, which includes changing signs, painting the interior and re-stocking shelves, said Frank J. Maglio, director of real estate of the New York Metro division of Stop & Shop, outside the Tuesday night Point Pleasant Beach council meeting.

Stop & Shop was at the council meeting to get permission to not have to comply with the local noise ordinance during the days that work will be ongoing overnight inside the store. The council approved the request.

When asked if the estimated 700 employees at Foodtown in Point Beach and the other locations being sold will still have jobs, Maglio said, "Most of the faces will remain the same. We're happy to have them."

Mark Norkus, company vice president, had said on March 21 that the tentative sale agreement calls for about 700 employees to be laid off around mid-May, as was stated in a letter mailed to the homes of employees in mid-March, he said.

"That's the notice we're required by law to send out," Norkus had said.

When asked for an estimate of what percentage of employees will be hired back, he said more than 90 percent.

On Tuesday night, Michael Liloia, Norkus Foodtown director of engineering in the Point Beach store, said of the Norkus family, "Jerry, Mark and Steven have been intimately involved in the sale and change-over and they want to see everything continue as a community in Point Beach, and they feel it will."

When asked if employees at Foodtown sites likely to be sold will still be represented by the same union, Norkus said yes.

When asked why employees will be laid off, Norkus said "because it's a different employer."

Norkus had declined to explain why his company is selling the five locations or any other details, saying he cannot discuss it further because the deal is tentative.

Harvey Whille, president of UFCW Local 1262, had said on March 21 that an attorney for Stop & Shop notified his office about the tentative agreement on March 18.

"It was a complete surprise, and  I've had a longstanding relationship with the Norkus family for many  years," he had said.

He said he and other union officials are trying to gather information on the pending sale and what it means for employees.

"I want the employees to know we'll be there for them every step of the way," he said.

The Norkus Foodtown in Freehold Borough would not be among those sold.