Major supermarket chains in Argentina, including La Anónima, Carrefour, Chango Más, and Libertad, have begun reducing staff in various provinces, particularly in the country's interior, in response to falling sales. According to commercial sources, a new, deeper adjustment plan is being prepared, which could affect up to 300 employees. In May 2024, at least 152 employees from 8 branches nationwide were already laid off, a measure attributed to the 'general economic situation with a drop in sales'. Currently, layoffs are affecting personnel with little seniority, especially from checkout lines. All this staff was under a collective agreement. 'We are survivors. Although many people may not believe it, today, as a chain that operates formally, it is very difficult,' stated an executive. 'When you compare relatively how supermarkets are doing in Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, and the world, we are doing very badly,' he concluded. The company lost 25% in units sold (from milk to meat), especially in cities like Santa Rosa, where the contraction in consumption forced the company to cut 56 jobs between early 2024 and late 2025. Despite expansion with new branches in localities such as Reconquista, Resistencia, Fernández Oro, and San Patricio del Chañar, its revenue fell by 4.22% year-on-year, which it attributes to the slowdown in consumption, which directly impacted the supermarket business, responsible for 87.39% of total revenue. A similar situation occurred at Carrefour, which has been in the process of selling its operations from the controlling French group for several months and has initiated a reorganization in some of its branches. Also in La Pampa, the branch on Avenida Spinetto reportedly planned to reduce its workforce, which originally had 117 employees, to a structure estimated between 60 and 70 workers. Union sources warned that the adjustment aims to reduce fixed costs and adapt structures to the new sales level. This strategy is replicated in several other locations in the interior, where consumption shows a sustained contraction. Libertad and Chango Más have laid off 50 employees since last December. The chain from the De Narváez group, one of the best-positioned bidders to acquire Carrefour's package in the country, has also been affected by the crisis plaguing the supermarket sector. There were reports of layoff notices sent to the managerial hierarchy of this business unit in the capital of San Juan, which the group acquired from Walmart in 2020 with 92 points of sale. In both cases, provincial unions are working to determine the conditions under which the layoffs occurred, as it has not been announced if severance pay will be paid or in what form. For this reason, labor authorities have intervened. And this is just the beginning. Comodoro Rivadavia, March 5 (NA) – Supermarket chains La Anónima, Carrefour, Chango Más, and Libertad have begun to reduce their staff in different provinces, with a special incidence in the interior of the country, as a response to the drop in sales. The general manager of the Patagonian chain, Nicolás Braun, attributed the situation they are going through to high delinquency in the cards that finance consumption, in addition to the 25% drop in revenue. Indeed, La Anónima reported a sharp increase in uncollectible levels, which adds pressure to the company's financial structure, as reported by the Argentine News Agency. The supermarket sector is going through a complex scenario marked by a sustained drop in sales and an increase in operational costs, which has led several chains to apply adjustments to their structure. Among the firms that have made cuts are: Chango Más, Carrefour, La Anónima, Libertad, and Vea and Easy (Cencosud). Layoffs and staff reductions have been recorded in provinces such as San Juan, La Pampa, and Misiones. Some companies have also proceeded with the closure of branches and commercial spaces. 'Today, it is costing supermarkets a lot to be profitable,' said the executive, a member of the founding family of La Anónima. Regarding the hierarchical staff, since they were 'at the limit' in terms of the number of employees, the adjustment was limited, although there were some layoffs. The union leadership is closely following the progress of the new adjustment plan, which goes against the promises made when the businessman took the helm of the chain. Libertad, with its epicenter in Córdoba Another chain in difficulties is the hypermarket Libertad, whose shares belong to the Calleja Group, a family company from El Salvador, which acquired it in an operation finalized at the beginning of 2024, after the French group Casino sold its assets in South America. It recently closed the Fresh Market in the DOT shopping mall in Buenos Aires and is in the process of being sold. The Libertad Group was born in 1986 as a family business and three years later opened its first self-service store in Córdoba. In 1998, entrepreneurs Tati Bugliotti and Miguel de Biasi—today the owner of the Pritty beverage brand—sold the chain to the French group Casino. In 2015, the Argentine operation came to be managed by Éxito, the Colombian subsidiary of Casino, consolidating a regional block that integrated assets in several countries.
