Diamond Bar Ralphs to Close in August

The Diamond Bar supermarket will be closing its doors in August, according to city and grocery union officials.

Diamond Bar Community Development Director, Greg Gubman, said that the chain has identified the Diamond Bar location as "underperforming" and, as a result, will not renew the lease on the property, which is up in August.

Gubman said there is currently no business slated to replace the store, but the city will look to partner with the property owner to attract a national chain to come into the space.

"We're going to hope to find another quality national tenet like a Sprouts or Whole Foods," Gubman said. "Trader Joe's — that is on our wish list, but (the Ralphs) location is large and there may be other marketing decisions that may exclude them."

The city previously mounted an attempt to bring Trader Joe's to Diamond Bar, but the effort was unsuccessful.

Councilmember Carol Herrera that the city "stood on its head" to bring the high-end grocery chain to Diamond Bar, but the Trader Joe's ultimately decided to move to the Shoppes in Chino Hills.

Gubman said the city will be collecting marketing information about the location at the intersection of Grand and Diamond Bar Boulevard to help attract a national retailer.

"Grand and Diamond Bar Boulevard has huge traffic counts," Gubman said, "so, we'll do what we can to help persuade a major tenant to consider that space, and that's presumably beneficial to both the property owner and to the city."

Gubman said the city first received confirmation of the closure last week after checking up on circulating rumors.

"If we hadn't followed up on the rumors, I don't know when we would have heard about it," Gubman said.

Representatives of the firm that owns the property, BARCO Management, did not respond to phone messages and emails sent Friday and a phone call Monday.

Local grocery workers union President Connie Leyva said she questions the timing of the closure, which comes as contract negotiations continue between around 52,000 employees and chains including Food 4 Less, Ralphs, Vons, Safeway, Lucky, Sav-On, Albertsons, Thrifty, and Rite-Aid.

"It's hard on our members and their employees and it's a way to create doubt and fear," Leyva said. "If members are scared, they might accept a sub-standard contract."

Leyva said the decision is part of seven underperforming Ralphs closures in Southern California and that these closures can create problems that are "multi-fold" for communities.

"Employees lose their jobs, then the shopping center is blighted, and these stores are often the anchor," Leyva said, "and that hurts ancillary businesses as well."

In April, the neighboring Blockbuster Video closed its doors and remains vacant. Gubman said the city is not currently aware of any business planning to move in to that location either.

Leyva said other supermarket chains like Albertsons have also been closing Southern California stores, but that she was not aware of any plans to close the Diamond Bar Albertsons. Any of the closures for this year, she said, would have been announced with the other store closures.

"There's no talk about the Albertsons in Diamond Bar (closing)," Leyva said. "There's nothing to indicate that this would happen."