Empty supermarkets are not easy to fill

Communities are struggling to fill the empty hulks left by Albertson’s and other grocery stores, reports the Chronicle. Some have been replaced with movie theaters. Some have been vacant for years.

Phil Tucker, special projects coordinator for the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1179, said that Contra Costa County has seen seven supermarkets close in the past five years, with only two of them turned back into grocery stores. Another was converted into housing units, and the rest remain vacant.

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But even when a supermarket site gets filled with a new tenant, it is not always the one that the community wants. For instance, in Cherryland, an unincorporated section of Alameda County, residents expressed strong interest in replacing an old Albertson’s on Mission Boulevard in the Creekside Shopping Center with another supermarket. Instead it was replaced with a 99-cent store.