When SuperValu bought Albertson’s last summer, I wondered why they would need duplicative staff in Boise when their headquarters was in Minnesota.
Now the handwriting is on the wall.
According to an article in the Idaho Statesman, at least 400 Albertson’s jobs will leave Boise in the next 18 months and that may be just the beginning.
All 400 jobs are in the merchandising and marketing departments.
SuperValu officials said last Friday that they will “keep evaluating” which corporate jobs to keep in Boise.
Yeah, right.
The employees are being offered similar positions in Minnesota with relocation benefits, but it remains to be seen how many will accept the company’s “offer” to relocate to balmy Minnesota, known for having mosquitoes with landing lights and wheels (wonder if they have West Nile Virus there??)
Many of the affected employees were relocated to Boise within the past two years, and I can only imagine that they’re a little weary of having their lives continually disrupted by “the company” in order to keep their jobs.
About 2,100 Albertson employees will remain at the Boise location (for now).
How will this affect the Boise real estate market?
Hard to tell.
We certainly don’t need 400 more homes on the market now, but not all of those 400 people will move out of our area.
In the past, layoffs at Micron and Hewlett Packard barely caused a ripple in the market, but that was at a time when the Boise real estate market was stronger.
Boise is a great place to live and most people will do just about anything to stay here.
We’ll get through it.
It could have been much worse.