date:May 05, 2014
Safeway profit tumbled in the first quarter as the supermarket chain began to fully see the financial hit of selling hundreds of stores in Chicago and Canada.
Profit at Pleasanton-based Safeway plummeted more than 52 percent from the first quarter of 2013. The company attributed much of the loss to the sale of 213 full-service grocery stores in western Canada -- a $5.2 billion deal that was completed in November -- and the sale of 72 Chicago-area Dominick's stores at the end of last year.
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