SMOKEY POINT – The owner of Food Pavilion said Monday the supermarket will close by mid-July after attempts to find a buyer for the business proved fruitless.
As a result, 60 employees will lose their jobs, said Bellingham-based Brown &Cole Stores. The company will provide severance pay to most workers and is arranging for job assistance, according to spokeswoman Sue Cole.
Until the store closes, it will offer its inventory for sale at discounted prices, Cole added.
Brown &Cole announced in February that it planned to shed eight stores across the state, including three in Snohomish County. In addition to the Food Pavilion at 17020 Smokey Point Blvd., the company operates a smaller Food Pavilion store at 146 Haller St. in Arlington and Thrifty Foods at 8901 271st St. NW in Stanwood.
For the time being, the two other local stores will stay open, Cole said.
Brown &Cole’s president, Craig Cole, has said rising health care costs for its unionized employees and greater competition in the grocery sector from Wal-Mart were factors in the decision to shrink the family-owned chain, which has 22 other locations in Washington and Oregon, including south Everett’s Cost Cutter store.
The 67,000-square-foot Smokey Point Food Pavilion is located about six miles from Wal-Mart’s Quil Ceda store, which last year converted into a supercenter with groceries. Wal-Mart also is planning a supercenter less than a mile away from the Brown &Cole store.
That proposal hindered Brown &Cole’s attempts to sell the business there to another grocery chain, Sue Cole said.
Wal-Mart also has looked at opening in Stanwood, though a developer has withdrawn a proposal for a big box store there after running into community opposition.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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