Layoffs begin at Fry’s; jobless claims decline
Fry’s Electronics has detailed the layoffs it has planned for some of its operations after the iconic consumer electronics retailer decided to cease its operations.
The longtime tech retailer closed all its stores two weeks ago. The San Jose-based company said coronavirus-linked economic woes and online shopping forced it to pull the plug on operations.
Fry’s so far has laid off 148 workers in San Jose, according to official notices it filed with the state Employment Development Department.
“The company will be terminating active and previously furloughed employees at the Fry’s facility located at 600 E. Brokaw Road in San Jose as a result of the permanent closure and shutdown of the facility and the company’s business as a whole,” Randy Fry, the company’s president, wrote in the notice. “This termination of employees is expected to be permanent.”
At the time of its closure, Fry’s was operating more than a dozen stores across California. So far, layoff notices only reflected two stores in the Bay Area.
Yin-yang of jobless claims
Initial unemployment claims dropped below 100,000 last week in California for the second straight week, federal labor officials reported Thursday.
Bad weather hampered hiring across the U.S., leading to a rise in weekly claims.
Since the onset of the lockdowns in early 2020, California has posted weekly jobless claims well above 100,000 for 45 out of 48 weeks.
During the week that ended on Feb. 27, California workers filed about 88,130 initial claims for unemployment, down 2,340 from the 90,470 claims filed in the week ending Feb. 20, the U.S. Labor Department reported.
Nationwide, initial jobless claims totaled 745,000 last week, up 9,000 from the 736,000 claims filed the prior week.
Though the pace of layoffs has eased since the year began, they remain high by historical standards. Before the virus flattened the U.S. economy a year ago, applications for unemployment aid had never topped 700,000 nationwide in any week, even during the Great Recession.
All told, 4.3 million Americans are receiving traditional state unemployment benefits. Counting supplemental federal unemployment programs that were established to soften the economic damage from the virus, an estimated 18 million people are collecting some form of jobless aid.
Adelson empire ends in Vegas
Las Vegas Sands is selling the iconic Venetian casino resort and its Sands Expo and Convention Center for $6.25 billion, withdrawing from gambling operations on the Las Vegas Strip after changing the nature of the casino business there and just about everywhere else.
The name of the Venetian, the expo center as well as the Palazzo, the Sands’ luxury casino and resort that is part of the same complex, will remain, and the company’s headquarters will stay in Las Vegas.
But the company led by Sheldon Adelson until his death this year will effectively cease U.S. operations. Under Adelson, the company’s focus turned to Asia years ago, where revenue eventually outpaced even the operations on the Las Vegas Strip.
Under the two-part deal announced Wednesday, VICI Properties will buy the casino and resort and all assets associated with the Venetian Resort Las Vegas and the Sands Expo for $4 billion. And Apollo Global Management will acquire the operations of the Venetian for $2.25 billion.
The global pandemic broadsided Las Vegas, shuttering the Strip where Las Vegas Sands has been the biggest operator for years. Sales growth vanished last March as infections spread across the U.S. The company posted a quarterly loss of almost $300 million in January.
The sale comes just two months after the death of Adelson, who transformed the landmark Las Vegas casino that was once a hangout of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack into a towering Italian-inspired complex.
Adelson reframed the target audience in Vegas, focusing on conventioneers and even families. He recognized that the real potential was not on the casino floor, as it was in the 1960s, but at the hotels, resorts and convention centers that surround them.