Trancas Country Market in Malibu now houses the last remaining Vintage Grocers, a popular upscale grocery market. Effective March 15, the company closed its locations at The Promenade in Westlake Village and the Palisades Village in Pacific Palisades.
Rumors that Erewhon Market—another upscale grocery chain with locations around Southern California—would be taking over the Palisades location were confirmed that day as well. The Erewhon Market website already lists 15285 W. Sunset Blvd, Pacific Palisades (the former Palisades Vintage Grocers location) as an upcoming location.
In a statement shared with The Malibu Times, a representative for Vintage Grocers said, “Malibu-based homegrown market Vintage Grocers has joined forces with like-minded natural goods store Erewhon Market. The two independent grocers are partnering to rebrand Vintage Grocers’ Palisades Village location, which will reopen this summer as Erewhon’s fifth location.”
“Vintage will also be closing its Westlake Village store, given its proximity to Erewhon’s market in The Summit at Calabasas,” the statement described.
Employees of the Westlake and Palisades locations were informed of the closure the evening before it was made official, March 14, as confirmed by documents obtained by the Times. When asked about the employees of both locations, the spokesperson said, “It’s Erewhon’s intention to consider all Vintage Grocers Palisades and Westlake employees for employment with Erewhon. Vintage Grocers has also transferred many Palisades and Westlake team members to Malibu.”
Oxnard resident Nikki Chen, a now-former five-year employee of Vintage Grocers—who eventually transferred to the Westlake Village location—said nothing was communicated to staff members prior to March 14. She said many who worked there resided in Malibu.
When an article questioning the future of the Palisades Vintage Grocers appeared in the Palisadian Post earlier this month, upper management dismissed it as rumors, Chen said. When Daniel Barth, the market’s executive director, gave a tour to the Erewhon CEO Tony Antoci early last week, again, nothing was said.
Of the visit, Cori Brennan, another former employee of the Westlake location, said, “That was kind of [like], ‘Oh, this is real.’ And obviously they knew something. The Erewhon CEO doesn’t just show up out of nowhere.”
“Usually, the answer was, ‘We don’t know anything about it. Continue conducting business as usual,’” Chen explained.
Speaking on March 15, she said, “Yesterday, some of the store managers were going through the stores hand-picking people [saying] ‘Starting tomorrow, we want you to report to Malibu.”
To her, management was picking “who was going to transfer and therefore, keep their jobs.”
Both former employees expressed frustration with the company.
“The company has a very high turnover rate because they worked us really hard,” Brennan said. “ … A lot of people there didn’t have much experience. We tried as much as we could.”
She described all three stores as very different, with very little organization among them. Highlighting a lack of corporate influence, she explained the stores were not consistent with providing the same products at all three stores.
Employees who were laid off will be entitled to a 60-day payout based on the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988. Under the California law, the company must pay in lieu of notice, which will amount to either the employee’s final rate or an average of three years—whichever is higher.
“In some ways, it’s generous, and that’s how HR is pitching it, but really it is no more than what the WARN Act requires of covered closures,” Chen wrote in an email to The Malibu Times on Tuesday, March 19.
By Friday afternoon, listings for the Westlake Village and Pacific Palisades locations had been removed from the Vintage Grocers website.
The Malibu location recently celebrated its five-year anniversary. When it opened, the location became—and remains—Malibu’s only grocery store operating west of Point Dume.
In August 2017, it made headlines after a change in leadership marked the departure of longtime employees, including former manager Eric Fuscher and his wife, Linda; Jack Nassie; and Mary Carbionniere.
The Westlake location was open for a little more than two years, while the Palisades location was open for less than half a year. In-store management working on Friday at the Trancas Country Market Vintage Grocers declined to comment for this article.
In the Tuesday email, Chen wrote, “Although we’re frustrated and worried and all that, most of us are really just sad that we never got a chance to say goodbye.”