ST. ANN, MO - Save-A-Lot is paring down its staff after moving into a new headquarters last month. According to a report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the discount grocery chain laid off 80 headquarters employees, but has promised to keep 500 jobs and add 60 more in exchange for state tax credits and local property tax breaks.

“As a normal course of doing business, Save-A-Lot must look at how we are staffed to take our business to the next level,” Save-A-Lot said in a statement. “We’ve grown and expanded and will be looking to fill positions that are needed to continue our successful growth as a leading discount grocery chain. Those staff members who were affected by this re-structuring will be eligible to apply for open positions for which they are qualified.”

The company also said in a statement emailed to the St. Louis Business Journal that it “can confirm that a limited number of corporate job reductions were announced today impacting about 1 percent of our company-wide workforce. The reductions are mostly managerial and administrative positions. They do not include store level team members nor do they impact operations at our 1,300 stores.”

Save-A-Lot invested $8 million into its 162,000-square-foot St. Ann-based headquarters, which it moved into in December.

The Business Journal reports that the St. Louis County Council rescinded a bill that would have provided subsidies to Save-A-Lot for moving into its new St. Ann headquarters, including Chapter 100 bonds and a 15-year tax abatement at 50 percent on personal property. In its place, St. Ann initiated these subsidies, pledging up to $3 million through the Missouri Works program and $85,000 through Skilled Workforce Missouri, under the conditions that the retailer would meet certain employment targets. The news source notes that it is “unclear how the layoffs will affect” St. Ann’s subsidies.

Are Save-A-Lot’s layoffs above the board and in line with St. Ann's subsidies? AndNowUKnow will continue to keep an eye on the newswire.

Save-A-Lot