Tawa Supermarket Inc., the parent of 99 Ranch Market, is closing its Chino store and in the process laying off 49 workers, the company said in an Oct. 27 regulatory filing with California.
A spokesperson for the Buena Park-based grocery chain was not immediately available to comment on its plan to shutter the store at 4024 Grand Ave.
In an Oct. 26 filing with the states’ Employment Development Department, Tawa’s Lily Mao, director of human resources, wrote that the layoffs would happen when the store closes Nov. 15.
The chain has another 99 Ranch in the city, a little more than 2 miles away at 2959 Chino Ave.
Tawa also announced plans to cut 54 jobs at another store closing in Pleasanton by Dec. 5.
The layoff filings were made as part of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act — commonly referred to as WARN, which are required when an employer lays off more than 50 employees.
The supermarket chain was founded in 1984 by Roger Chen, a Taiwanese immigrant, who saw a need for an Asian supermarket in the local communities. Roger Chen’s children, Alice Chen, the chief executive officer, and Jonson Chen, the chairman, are now at the helm of the company.
The company specializes in Chinese and other Asian pantry goods, produce, fish meat and bakery items.
The chain, which employs between 5,000 and 10,000 employees — according to the job networking website Linkedin — dominates the Asian grocery scene in California. Tawa lists 24 of its 99 Ranch Market stores across Southern California and 18 in Northern California.
In June, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the Asian supermarket chain for allegedly discriminating against its non-Chinese workers.
According to the EEOC lawsuit, Tawa subjected non-Chinese store-level employees to discrimination by failing to promote them because they were not Chinese, paid them less than Chinese workers, and scheduled them for fewer work hours than Chinese counterparts.
“As a result, some non-Chinese workers felt they had no choice but to resign,” the EEOC said.
A copy of the 10-page lawsuit showed the alleged problems may have begun in 2015, when the vice president of human resources hired non-Chinese managers across various positions. Those jobs included “district managers, store managers and loss prevention.”
The federal agency said the company saw a leadership change at that time, and the grocery store chain allegedly terminated recently hired non-Chinese managers at multiple store locations. None of the locations were named in the suit.