Company should do right in closing Sack N Save

A letter addressed to the public on Oct. 28 from Foodland CEO Jenai Wall gave “notice” to the employees and the public that Sack N Save would be closing Nov. 28 after 27 years of business because revenues were down and the cost of repairing refrigerators and updating operational needs did not justify remaining open.

The letter painted Sack N Save as a generous employer because the employees would be transferred to other stores.

It failed to state that the employees would lose their seniority and the benefits that accrue based on employee loyalty and service. Full-time employees would have their hours cut to half time.

As well, each employee had 30 days to prepare their families, consider bill payments, mortgage payments and all the attendant circumstances when such a devastating loss of income and security occur.

The corporation’s true intentions are evident in the lack of maintaining refrigeration, failing to bring in healthy and fresh foods and ensuring that our community was truly valued by addressing operational updating and needs on an annual basis.

Meanwhile, new Sack N Save stores have been developed for high-end communities while our needs have been ignored.

Our Sack N Save is like a neighborhood store to us. The employees treat their regular customers like ‘ohana and share a friendliness and warmth common in neighborhood stores.

We hope that Foodland will do the right thing and ensure that employees’ seniority is not stripped from them and will continue to work the same number of hours.

M. Verdine Kong Wailuku