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| Dominick's is closing its store in Orland Park in early October. |
By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy
Orland Park's supermarket scene, which took a hit earlier this year when Green Food and Produce closed in the former Bobak's Plaza at Wolf Road and 159th Street and then was rocked when Randy's Market shut down a couple of weeks ago, will suffer another blow on Oct. 2 when Dominick's closes its store at 15080 S. LaGrange Road.
"It was a business decision made by the company," Dominick's Director of Public Affairs Lauri Sanders said Wednesday.
"The Orland Park store is a casualty of not being able to be a part of a profitable business," she said.
Sanders did know how many workers would be affected by the shutdown, but said Dominick's was committed to helping them during the transition.
"Our goal is 100 percent transfer or absorption into the company," she said.
An employee at the Merrionette Park store on 115th Street said some workers there are afraid they will get bumped from their positions by workers with more seniority transferring from the Orland store.
A spokeswoman for Local 881 of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union said all non-management workers at the Orland store are members of the UFCW and by contract are allowed to transfer to other stores in the chain.
"Usually, transfers are done regionally," she said. "Workers from Orland Park most likely would transfer to nearby stores such as Palos Heights or Frankfort."
The Orland store was older and slightly smaller than newer stores and did not have some of the latest features such as a Blockbuster Express machine, Starbucks and an in-store Chase Bank.
Despite those losses, Orland Park grocery options are still plentiful with Aldi's, Jewel-Osco, Trader Joe's, Costco and Meijer stores open for business in the village.
