Big Y buying seven CT A&P stores

Massachusetts' Big Y Foods chain is buying seven Connecticut supermarkets, including ones in Middletown and West Hartford, from The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., A&P says.

A&P confirmed two newspapers' reports of the seven stores that are part of the deal for an undisclosed sum due to close at the end of October.

According to the New Haven Register and its sister Middletown Press, Big Y will acquire A&P stores in Middletown, Mystic, Old Lyme and West Hartford. In addition, Big Y is buying A&P locations in Branford, East Haven and Naugatuck, the newspapers said.

Big Y, based in Springfield, operates 29 Massachusetts grocery markets and 25 Connecticut stores, including seven in the Hartford area.

New Jersey-based A&P operates 12 Connecticut stores under the A&P banner, including two in Berlin and Middletown; one Waldbaum's in West Hartford; and a single Food Emporium in New Canaan.

A&P recently announced the slated closing of one of its Berlin stores, at 207 Webster Square, idling 82 workers by Oct. 13.

Charles D'Amour, president and chief operating officer at Massachusetts-based Big Y, said the A&P locations that the chain is acquiring will close by the end of October and Big Y "will spend the next few months evaluating the locations."

"Some will open sooner than others, depending upon how the evaluation goes," D'Amour said, adding it is possible some of the stores that Big Y is acquiring from A&P may not reopen.

The sale is part of A&P's turnaround strategy announced in July.

A&P is one of the nation's first supermarket chains and currently operates 429 stores in eight states and the District of Columbia under the names A&P, Waldbaum's, Pathmark, Pathmark Sav-a-Center, Best Cellars, The Food Emporium, Super Foodmart, Super Fresh and Food Basics.