The Fleming Companies, a Dallas-based grocery store wholesaler, put its portfolio of more than 50 ABCO stores up for sale in April, but there's been few takers. Safeway purchased 11 of the stores earlier this year, seven in Tucson and four in the Phoenix area, but no others have been sold.

As a result, Fleming plans to close 12 locations, which will, in addition to putting 700 people out of work, free up thousands of square feet of retail space and leave a number of neighborhood centers without an anchor tenant. Ten of the closings will come in the Valley and two in Tucson. The closings will occur of the next three months, say company officials.

The remaining stores will be sold one at a time, rather than in a large collection, says Randy Hatcher, a Fleming spokesman. Retail analysts have said that the stores may be difficult to sell because they're smaller than the 30,000 to 40,000-sf that most grocery chains are looking for now.

The glut of stores is sure to raise the overall vacancy rate of retail space in the Valley, if the spaces aren't released to grocery store chains or converted into industrial or back-office use, say local real estate experts. The vacancy rate at the start of the year was 5.25%, including regional malls, according to a survey by CB Richard Ellis.