wage cuts conditional on a sale to Spartan Stores—which was led by several former Farmer Jack executives, including its CEO Dennis Edison who led Farmer Jack until his dismissal in 2002, but the deal fell through. Workers then approved a similar package of cuts in exchange for A&P guaranteeing to keep the stores open through May 2007. A&P, which was unable to find a buyer for Farmer Jack, said the chain would break even for the year and therefore A&P—which had just received a cash injection from the sale of its Canadian division—was in no hurry to sell it. A&P also admitted that because it had anticipated a quick sale, Farmer Jack had been poorly managed for over a year; therefore, the company was returning to loyalty cards and "It's Savings Time" marketing. By April 2006, Farmer Jack was once again profitable. In August 2006, Farmer Jack announced it would convert three stores into a prototype mixed discount-upscale market featuring warehouse-type shelving, fewer product offerings and higher stacking in the produce department while featuring lower prices. Plans were scrapped by October, with then A&P CEO Eric Claus saying "we're not pleased with our lack of sales momentum in Michigan". In March 2007, A&P announced plans to sell or close Farmer Jack by July. In May, its distribution warehouses closed. The remaining Farmer Jacks closed on July 7. "For all practical purposes, those stores were closed anyway," supermarket analyst David Livingston told the Detroit News. "Farmer Jack was doing such a low volume. The existing stores were barely even doing that -- existing." "Farmer Jack was stuck in the past in terms of quality, merchandising and pricing," said Ken Dalto, a Farmington Hills-based retail consultant. "A&P never gave its Michigan stores the type of attention they needed to do well. Customers noticed they didn't move beyond 20 years ago." While Kroger was aggressively remodeling or rebuilding its stores with designer interiors, full service meat & seafood counters, sushi and extensive prepared food bars, most Farmer Jacks retained A&P's late 1980s/early 1990s interior design package. Of the remaining 66 Farmer Jacks, the company announced that it sold 20 to Kroger, 10 to smaller local chains and 15 to independent grocers. However, some of the deals with the independent grocers collapsed. In an October 2007 SEC filing A&P revealed that it received approximately $110 million for 41 former Farmer Jack sites, and that