California layoffs / O'Brien's Market Inc.

O'Brien's Market Inc. California Layoffs 2026: What Employees Should Know

O'Brien's Market Inc. has 2 layoff notices on file with California's Employment Development Department (EDD) under the state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, covering 117 jobs in Stanislaus County. That is what the state has published since July 2025, not an all-time total. 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.

What the filing says

These are the details as O'Brien's Market Inc. reported them to the state. The EDD publishes every notice, and this page reflects the data as of Jul 31, 2026.

Location	County	Notice given	Jobs end	Workers	Type
Modesto	Stanislaus County	Jul 27, 2026	Sep 26, 2026	50	Closure Permanent
Modesto	Stanislaus County	Jul 27, 2026	Sep 27, 2026	67	Closure Permanent

How much notice the law requires

California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff. What makes the California version unusual is how few ways out it gives an employer. The only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war. Federal law has three exceptions, including one for unforeseeable business circumstances, and the California Legislature deliberately declined to copy them.

What this filing shows

The shortest gap in these filings is 61 calendar days between the notice date and the date the jobs end. That is at or above the 60 days the statute describes.

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.

O'Brien's Market severance: what to check before you sign

A severance offer is not the same thing as the notice pay the WARN Act describes, and an employer cannot use one to satisfy the other. A release may also give up more than you expect, and an arbitration agreement you signed at hire can affect where a dispute is heard. Read our full guide to the California WARN Act before you decide, and consider having the paperwork looked at.

Two things worth doing this week either way. File for unemployment now, because WARN money does not reduce it. And keep every document, including the notice itself and anything showing when it arrived.

Free case review

Were you part of the O'Brien's Market layoff?

Before you sign anything, have the paperwork read. Justin reviews severance offers and WARN notices for free, responds personally, and if there is no recovery you owe no fee.

Get my free review or call 818-585-1267

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. Every notice on this page falls after that date. If you kept your copy, it is worth reading down this list against it.

Everything federal law requires. A California notice has to carry all the elements the federal WARN Act calls for, including whether the action is permanent, the expected date, and whether bumping rights exist.
Whether transition help is being coordinated. The notice must say whether the employer is arranging services through your local workforce development board, through some other organization, or not at all.
A working email and phone number for that board, plus a short standard paragraph pointing you to an America's Job Center of California for help with a resume, interview practice, job searching, and training programs.
Services arranged within 30 days. If the employer said it would coordinate services, the statute gives it 30 days from the date of the notice to actually set them up.
CalFresh information. A description of the CalFresh food assistance program, the benefits helpline, and a link to the CalFresh website.
A working email and phone number for the employer. Not a no-reply address — a route back to a person.

Source: Labor Code section 1401, as amended by SB 617 (Stats. 2025, ch. 229), effective January 1, 2026. A notice missing something on this list is not automatically a violation with a remedy attached, and this page does not say that it is. Whether a gap matters depends on the employer, the action, and what else happened.

Questions people are asking

What is the O'Brien's Market severance package?

The WARN notice O'Brien's Market 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 O'Brien's Market Inc.?

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 an 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.

Why do co-workers have different last days?

The filings here list 2 separate last days of work. Employers commonly stagger a reduction so some functions run longer than others. Your own notice period is measured against your date, not the earliest one in the filing, so two people at the same employer can be in genuinely different positions.

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 these filings is 61 days, at or above the 60 the statute describes. Notice can still fall short in practice if it did not reach you when the filing says, or if it lacked what the statute requires it to contain.

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 Sep 27, 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 a former employer may owe under WARN. 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 these filings, Sep 27, 2026, three years runs to about Sep 27, 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.

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.

The Modesto Focus reported that both family-owned O'Brien's Market stores in Modesto will close in late September 2026, putting 117 employees out of work — 50 at the Roseburg Square store at 839 W. Roseburg Avenue, closing September 26, and 67 at the Dale Road store, closing September 27.

The closures follow the retirement of founder and president Chuck O'Brien, The Modesto Focus reported.

Details worth knowing

The company is negotiating with an unnamed store operator to purchase at least one location; the employee notice quoted by The Modesto Focus said that if a sale is completed before September 27 and the purchaser offers affected employees continued employment without an interruption, they "may not experience an employment loss" — though the notice cautioned that no final agreement had been reached.
Workers received written notice in late July and were directed to Vice President Bill O'Brien with questions, according to The Modesto Focus.

Sources: The Modesto Focus (opens in a new tab)The Modesto Focus (opens in a new tab)

What the numbers show

The 117 affected positions are in Modesto.
They cover 2 separate addresses rather than a single site, so co-workers at different locations may have received different dates.
Every notice is filed as a closure rather than a partial reduction, meaning the sites themselves are shutting down.
The jobs do not all end on the same day. The filings list 2 separate last days of work, running from September 26, 2026 to September 27, 2026.
Within Stanislaus County, this accounts for 7% of all workers covered by WARN notices on file, across 12 employers.
By headcount it sits in the top 35% of the 593 employer layoffs tracked here.
The EDD records the employer's sector as Retail Trade.
The 117 workers leaving O'Brien's Market Inc. re-enter a job market where Stanislaus County unemployment stood at 7% in June 2026, above the 5.2% statewide rate (Bureau of Labor Statistics, not seasonally adjusted).
All 2 notices are dated within a single month, July 2026, which reads as one event reported site by site rather than a rolling reduction.

These are counts and comparisons drawn from the published filings, not findings about O'Brien's Market.

Free job-search help near Modesto

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 these filings.

Modesto American Job Center of California / EDD Workforce Services Branch (WSB) & Stanislaus County Workforce Development (opens in a new tab)
629 12th Street, Modesto, CA 95354 · 209-576-6118 or 209-558-WORK (9675)
Comprehensive center (full services on site) · about 1.6 miles from the Modesto 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 Stanislaus County around the same time

12 employers have WARN notices on file in Stanislaus County, covering 1,681 workers. These filed within about a quarter of this one.

Nestle USA, Inc.57 workers

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

Other Retail Trade layoffs in California

Employers the EDD lists in the same sector with WARN notices on file statewide.

Vons Companies Inc.244 workers
ELC Beauty LLC67 workers
New Leaf Community Markets, Inc.61 workers

Grouped by the industry the EDD recorded on the filings. No connection between these employers is implied.

Key points

Each point is explained and sourced above · Verified July 31, 2026

Workers affected · Stanislaus County · published since July 2025
117
CA EDD WARN report
Notices filed · California · published July 2025 to July 2026
2
CA EDD WARN report
Jobs end · As filed
Sep 27, 2026
CA EDD WARN report
Days between notice and last day · Arithmetic on two published dates
61 calendar days
CA EDD WARN report
Stanislaus County unemployment rate · vs 5.2% statewide, not seasonally adjusted
7% (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

Cite this page

You are welcome to quote or cite this page. Copy a reference below, or read our citation guidelines for other formats and for how we source what we publish.

APA

Law Offices of Justin Silverman, APC. (2026). O'Brien's Market Inc. California Layoffs 2026. https://www.jsilvermanlaw.com/layoffs/obriens-market/

Inline HTML attribution

According to <a href="https://www.jsilvermanlaw.com/layoffs/obriens-market/">Law Offices of Justin Silverman, APC</a>, ...

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 Jul 31, 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 O'Brien's Market Inc., and any company names are used only to identify publicly filed notices.

Were you part of the O'Brien's Market layoff?

Tell me what you were told and when. The review is free.