Andronico's Community Markets

Having been employed by Andronico’s Community Market for 8 years, I wanted to share with you my story and give a voice to the voiceless; employees who have dedicated years of their life to this company, and consequently, they need to be heard and you need to hear their story.

Andronico’s Community Markets had been struggling mightily for the last few years, given poor management and leadership from the very top, the overextending and building of new stores that ended up being closed (and sold for pennies on the dollar), the recession in the early part of this decade and the competition from Whole Foods, Berkeley Bowl, Monterey Market and Trader Joe’s. Additionally, Andronico’s has never wanted to address its pricing structure and as a result, has consistently been undercut by the competition.

In the summer of 2010, Bill Andronico brought in a so-called “top-notch” team (most were high in management at Whole Foods) to help turn the franchise around. Given my discussions with this leadership team, they said that they would give it a year. They didn’t say what would happen in a year if they could not turn it around. But that’s where the next part of this story takes place.

In early September 2011, a majority of employees (I worked at the Solano Store) were gathered in the employee lunchroom and informed by our Operations Manager, Sean Thomas, that Andronico's Community Markets had officially filed for bankruptcy that morning. We were all assured at that time that we all still had jobs, and as events unfolded, we would be kept in the loop and our status would be updated accordingly.

When we were updated about a week later we were told the following: that we were all going to be terminated and then officially rehired by the new company, with a 30-day probationary period, a 5% pay cut, and a mandatory drug test. After the 30-day period, we would be notified if we passed probation and were to be retained as employees.

In the week of October 9th – October 15th, all employees were "reinterviewed." This process was chaotic, to say the least. All 300+ employees were reinterviewed in the course of 3-4 days, with 3 members of the HR Department and one store director conducting 15 minute interviews, one right after another. The questions were straightforward, questions that normally would be asked in an interview. But then a question was asked that immediately raised a red flag for me. That question was: “Have you had any disciplinary procedures brought against you within the past 6 months?” Given the sequence of questions that had been asked in the interview process, I felt that question was incongruent. I felt that question was being inserted to have an additional criteria/reason to terminate an employee, but still be within the bounds of legality (more on that in future blogs).

During that same week (October 9th-15th) and the following week (October 16th-October 22nd), ALL of the Andronico’s Market stores were interviewing for new employees. Numerous employees in other stores informed me that the interviews were nonstop, from 9am in the morning to 5 or 6pm in the afternoon. Given this development, employees questioned: Why would they be interviewing so many people if they assured us that we were going to be employed through the official “change of ownership” transition? Since I, like most employees, could not answer that question, we just let it go and trusted that the bankruptcy proceedings and Bill Andronico had our best interests in mind.

The official change in ownership happened on Thursday October 27, 2011. Andronico’s was officially sold to Renovo Capital (an equity company out of Reno, Nevada). At 4:47pm in the afternoon, my cell phone rings and it's my store director and assistant store director on speakerphone. I am told: "The new company is changing hands as of midnight tonight and they are not offering you a position at this time."

I will say here that I was one of the fortunate ones. At least I got a phone call and was spoken to directly. There were employees that reported to me that a message was left on their answering machine. Two employees in particular told me that they were asked to work late because of a shift shortage, then told 7 minutes after the store closed that they were no longer employed as of midnight.

I want to keep this story in the news because of the labor issues involved and also the deplorable ethical standards used by Bill Andronico and Renovo Capital to decide what employees to retain and which employees to let go. Basically, employees were mislead, or to put it bluntly, lied to. They knew all along that they were going to lay off close to 25% of the work force, and most of that 25% being journeymen, meaning the top of the labor pay scale. Why else would they be interviewing employee’s non-stop for 2-3 days? These new employees would be brought in and paid entry-level wage. So, from a strictly economic standpoint, their thinking is to get rid of as many journeymen as possible, employ entry level wage employees, and close as many stores as need be to make the franchise profitable.

And here’s another question. What will be the criteria used to decide what employees to retain in 30 days, when the “probationary” period has expired (and the 30 days is fast approaching)? Will that be the same criteria used in the first round of layoffs? Will most of the employees laid off be journeyman again? Right now, you have employees who are scared, insecure and definitely not working up to their potential because they are just trying to keep under the radar, hoping that in 30 days they still have a job. There are also employees that have been fired in the last 30 days for no reason other than the fact that they are on 30-day probation. Hopefully, the union will be able to address their issues promptly and fairly. But the union is in a delicate position because they have an ongoing relationship with the new company that they have to honor and protect.

What has happened to Andronico employees is not unique. It is happening all over the country right now. But what does make this situation unique is that a most of the employees that were laid off were dedicated employees, some of them having worked their whole employed life at Andronico’s. And the bottom line was that they should have been treated better. They should not have been informed 5-6 hours before midnight that they did not have a job. And the employees that had more than 10 years with the company (some employees having 20+ years) should have been given some sort of severance package (the excuse used of course was that they are bankrupt). Ironically (and sadly) Bill Andronico has consistently stated over the years, both publicly and privately, how we Andronico’s employees are “family.” Is this the way you treat family? If so, maybe the employees that are still employed by Andronico’s should file for adoption.