California layoffs / Food 4 Less

Food 4 Less California Layoffs 2026: What Employees Should Know

Food 4 Less has a layoff notice on file with California's Employment Development Department (EDD) under the state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, covering 64 jobs in Los Angeles County. That is what the state has published since July 2025. If you were one of them, here is what the filing says, how much notice the law asks for, and what to look at before you sign anything.

Updated Jul 31, 2026

What the filing says

These are the details as Food 4 Lessreported them to the state. The EDD publishes every notice, and these figures come from the state's report as retrieved on Aug 13, 2026.

Location	County	Notice given	Jobs end	Workers	Type
Inglewood	Los Angeles County	Feb 27, 2026	Mar 28, 2026	64	Closure Permanent

How much notice the law requires

California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff, and its only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war — far narrower than federal law's three. Who is covered and how the thresholds are counted is in our California WARN Act guide.

What this filing shows

This filing shows 29 calendar days between the notice date and the date the jobs end. That is less than the 60 days the statute describes.

In dates: counting 60 days back from the Mar 28, 2026 last day of work lands on Jan 27, 2026, and the notice is dated Feb 27, 2026.

This is a fact drawn from the public filing, not a conclusion that anyone broke the law. The date an employer records is not always the date workers were told, employers of different sizes are covered differently, and exceptions can apply. Whether it means anything in your case is exactly what a free consultation sorts out.

Food 4 Less severance: what to check before you sign

A severance offer is not the notice pay the WARN Act describes. Severance you were already promised — in a contract, a handbook, or a union agreement — cannot be used to satisfy that obligation, though Labor Code section 1402 does let an employer reduce a back-pay award by voluntary payments it was never required to make. A release may also give up more than you expect. Justin reviews severance agreements before workers sign. What to check before you decide is in our full guide to the California WARN Act.

Two things worth doing this week either way. File for unemployment now — WARN money does not reduce it, and the filings here run through Mar 28, 2026, so you do not have to wait for your last day. And keep every document, including the notice itself and anything showing when it arrived.

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What your notice was required to include

Timing is only half of what Labor Code section 1401 asks for. The notice itself has to contain specific things, and California added most of this list for notices issued on or after January 1, 2026. This notice falls after that date. If you kept your copy, read it against the full six-item checklist in our WARN Act guide — everything federal law requires, whether transition help is being coordinated, working contact details for your workforce board and for the employer itself, and CalFresh information.

Source: Labor Code section 1401, as amended by SB 617, effective January 1, 2026. A notice missing something from that list is not automatically a violation with a remedy attached — whether a gap matters depends on the employer, the action, and what else happened.

Questions people are asking

What is the Food 4 Less severance package?

The WARN notice Food 4 Less filed with the state does not list severance terms, and we do not publish any employer's package. A WARN notice reports how many jobs end, where, and when. Severance is a separate contract offered at the employer's discretion. California law does not require it, and an employer cannot use contractual severance to satisfy what the WARN Act requires, so being offered a package does not by itself answer whether notice pay is also owed. If you have an offer in hand, the terms in front of you are the ones that matter, and they are worth reading closely before the deadline on them runs.

Am I owed severance from Food 4 Less?

California law does not require severance on its own, and a severance offer is a separate thing from WARN pay. An employer cannot use contractual severance to satisfy its WARN obligation, so being offered a package does not answer whether notice pay is also owed.

Does taking the severance reduce what I could recover?

It depends on why the money is being paid. Severance the employer was already obligated to provide — under a contract, a policy, a benefit plan, or a union agreement — cannot be set against what the WARN Act requires. A payment that is genuinely voluntary and unconditional, one the employer had no legal obligation to make, can reduce that liability. Wages for work you actually performed during the notice period are not voluntary severance at all. Which category Food 4 Less's offer falls into is a question about the document in front of you, not about the layoff, and it is one of the better reasons to have the paperwork read before the deadline on it runs.

Does it matter that this was filed as a closure?

It can. California's WARN Act covers a closure, a mass layoff, and a relocation, and the thresholds are not identical. A closure means the site itself is shutting down rather than shedding part of its staff, which can change who is counted and whether the statute applies at all. It also tends to mean there is no role to be recalled to.

What if I did not get 60 days of notice?

California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff, and its only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war. That is far narrower than federal law, which has three exceptions. The shortest gap in this filing is 29 days, which is 31 short of 60. That is arithmetic on two published dates and not a finding that anyone broke the law: the recorded date is not always the date workers were told, and coverage depends on the employer's size and how many people were let go.

Can I still collect unemployment?

Yes. Under Labor Code section 1407, WARN-related payments are not treated as wages for unemployment purposes, so they cannot be used to deny or reduce your benefits in California. You do not have to wait for your last day — the filings here run through Mar 28, 2026 — and filing early is generally better than filing late.

Does taking a new job hurt my claim?

No. Wages you earn at a new job during the notice period do not reduce what Food 4 Less may owe under WARN. That holds even if you start before Mar 28, 2026, the last day of work in this filing. You do not need to delay a job search to protect a claim.

How long do I have to act?

Generally three years. The federal WARN Act sets no limitations period of its own, so courts borrow the closest state deadline, which in California is the three-year period for a liability created by statute. The clock starts when you suffer an employment loss, not when the notice went out. Measured from the last day of work in this filing, Mar 28, 2026, three years runs to about Mar 28, 2029. If this was a layoff rather than an outright termination, the loss may not count until the layoff has lasted more than six months, which can start the clock later still. Treat all of it as an outer edge rather than a plan. Other claims arising from the same layoff run much shorter, and a severance offer usually carries its own deadline measured in days.

Where a layoff can raise a legal question

A layoff is lawful on its own, and nothing below is a statement about Food 4 Less. These are the places California law can still come into play, depending on the facts of your own situation.

The severance you were asked to signA release can give up claims you did not know you had, and the terms are sometimes negotiable.
How you were selectedA reduction in force still cannot be used to cut someone for a protected reason such as age, disability, pregnancy, or a complaint they made.
Your final paycheckCalifornia sets when final wages are due at termination, and unpaid time or accrued vacation can carry penalties on top of the wages.
The length of the notice periodWhere a notice period turns out to fall short of what the law required, the question usually belongs to everyone in the same position rather than to one person.

General information about California law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

What has been reported

Press coverage of this layoff, summarized and attributed. This is reporting rather than the filing itself, and we did not independently verify it.

2 Urban Girls reported that the Food 4 Less on the 3200 block of W. Century Blvd. is closing along with the rest of the businesses in its shopping center, quoting the company's letter to California's EDD: "We anticipate that this action will occur in the two-week period beginning March 28, and that 64 Food 4 Less associates will be transferred to other locations."

The LA Local reported this was the only Food4Less in Inglewood and framed the closure within parent company Kroger's plan to close 60 Food4Less stores over 18 months. Food-insecurity advocates told the outlet the closure will strain local nonprofits, with the nearest Food4Less about two miles away at Western Avenue and Imperial Highway in South LA.

Details worth knowing

Both outlets reported that store employees were offered positions at other locations rather than being let go outright — the WARN letter quoted by 2 Urban Girls says all 64 associates "will be transferred to other locations."

Sources: 2 Urban Girls (opens in a new tab)The LA Local (opens in a new tab)

What the numbers show

The 64 affected positions are in Inglewood.
The notice is filed as a closure rather than a partial reduction, meaning the site itself is shutting down.
The shortest gap between notice and last day here is 29 days, against a statewide median of 61 days across every notice on file.
The 64 workers leaving Food 4 Less re-enter a job market where Los Angeles County unemployment stood at 5.3% in June 2026, above the 5.2% statewide rate (Bureau of Labor Statistics, not seasonally adjusted).

These are counts and comparisons drawn from the published filings, not findings about Food 4 Less.

Free job-search help near Inglewood

America's Job Center of California is the state's no-cost network for laid-off workers: help filing and keeping unemployment benefits, federally funded retraining, and résumé and interview coaching. Your WARN notice may name one; this is the closest to the site in this filing.

South Bay One Stop Business and Career Center - Inglewood (opens in a new tab)
110 South La Brea Avenue, Inglewood, CA 90301 · 424-419-4343 Ext: 7
Comprehensive center (full services on site)about 1.9 miles from the Inglewood site

Locations and hours change — confirm before visiting, or find another center with the EDD's center locator (opens in a new tab). Directory: U.S. Department of Labor, Jul 31, 2026; distances are straight-line from the address in the filing.

Other layoffs filed in Los Angeles County around the same time

158 employers have WARN notices on file in Los Angeles County, covering 17,863 workers. These filed within about a quarter of this one.

Snap Inc.320 workers
Phillips 66298 workers
Lodging Dynamics Hospitality Group, LLC278 workers
Saks & Company LLC231 workers
L.A. Care Health Plan225 workers
FormFactor, Inc.220 workers

Listed because they appear in the same county in the same public data. No connection between these employers is implied.

Key points

Each point is explained and sourced above · Verified August 13, 2026

Workers affected · Los Angeles County · published since July 2025
64
CA EDD WARN report
Notices filed · California · published July 2025 to August 2026
1
CA EDD WARN report
Jobs end · As filed
Mar 28, 2026
CA EDD WARN report
Days between notice and last day · Arithmetic on two published dates
29 calendar days
CA EDD WARN report
Approximate outer claim deadline · 3 years from the last day of work — an outer edge, other claims run shorter
About Mar 28, 2029
Code Civ. Proc. § 338(a)
Los Angeles County unemployment rate · vs 5.2% statewide, not seasonally adjusted
5.3% (June 2026)
BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
Notice California law describes · California
60 days before a covered mass layoff
Lab. Code § 1401
Available exceptions · California
Physical calamity or act of war only
Lab. Code § 1401

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About this data

Where it comes from. Every figure on this page is reproduced from the WARN report the California Employment Development Department publishes at edd.ca.gov (opens in a new tab), retrieved Aug 13, 2026. Employers file these notices with the state, and the state publishes them as a public record.

We make no representation that it is accurate or complete. We reproduce the state's file as published and do not independently verify it. Notices are amended and withdrawn, employers correct their own filings, layoffs are called off, and the published report can lag or contain errors. Nothing here is a substitute for the EDD's own record, and if the two disagree, the EDD's is the one that counts.

How employers are grouped. The EDD's report lists one row per notice and often names the same employer several ways — with a store or site number, a warehouse code, a per-location name, or a spelling variation. This tracker groups those filings under one employer so a company's notices appear on a single page; every underlying filing still appears as its own row in that page's table. The grouping is ours, not the EDD's, and it never combines differently named companies, even ones related through ownership.

Nothing here says an employer did anything wrong. Filing a WARN notice is what the law asks an employer to do, so appearing in this data reflects compliance with the notice requirement rather than a violation of it. Where we show the number of days between a notice and the last day of work, that is arithmetic on two published dates and not a legal conclusion. The date recorded in a filing is not necessarily the date employees were told, employers of different sizes carry different obligations, and statutory exceptions can apply. Whether any particular layoff complied with the law is a fact-specific question that this page does not answer.

This page is general information about California law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Food 4 Less, and any company names are used only to identify publicly filed notices.

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