The sudden and permanent shutdown of Cost Pro Supermarket at Woods Mall has left dozens of its employees facing deep uncertainty over unpaid wages, severance, and earned benefits, after workers were given unsigned termination notices with little advance warning of the closure.
According to one anonymous long-tenured staff member, the entire team finished their scheduled shifts without any indication that the grocery location would close its doors permanently. It was only after employees had finished their workday and gone home that word spread via colleague-to-colleague messages that all staff were required to return to the supermarket that same evening to collect formal termination documents.
“Most of us had to turn around and head back to the mall after our shift to pick up these letters,” the employee explained in an interview. “There was no formal communication from management ahead of time — we only found out through word of mouth from other staff.”
What has deepened workers’ distrust and anxiety is the unusual nature of the termination notices they received. The documents, which confirm that all positions have been eliminated due to redundancy, do not explicitly state that the supermarket has permanently closed, nor do they carry a signature from any member of the company’s management team. Instead, workers were told the manager would only place a company stamp on the notices, and that they would need to return at a later date to collect their final paychecks.
“This letter doesn’t even name who the management is, or clearly state the business is closed,” the employee said. “How do we know this document is even valid?”
Concerns over unpaid compensation have been amplified by past labor disputes involving the same business owner, Duggins, who operates another separate establishment in the region. According to the employee, that previous location also shut down suddenly without warning, and workers never received the back pay, salaries, or severance compensation they were owed for their years of service.
“We already saw this happen with Mr. Duggins’ other business,” the employee alleged. “One day workers showed up for their shift and the doors were locked, and they never got a cent of what they were owed. That history has all of us really worried this will happen again here.”
Long-serving staff members, including those who have worked at the supermarket for nine years or more, say they are especially anxious about the outcome. Many have spent decades building their careers at the location, and are now facing unemployment with no guarantee they will receive the severance and end-of-service benefits they are legally entitled to. “How can we be confident we’ll get what we’re owed, when we’ve already seen what happened with his other business?” the employee asked.
For its part, the unsigned termination notice issued to workers does lay out a formal timeline for final payments: the document confirms that all salaries will be paid through July 9, and that a full final payment statement — including any owed vacation pay, statutory notice pay, and applicable severance — will be issued to all employees by July 17. The notice also requires all workers to return any company-owned property, such as uniforms or work equipment, by that same deadline. But workers say past experience has left them with little faith that this timeline will be honored, leaving them in limbo as they navigate sudden unemployment.