SAFE – RETIREMENT BENEFITS

SAFEWAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES*

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (In Part)

Note K: Employee Benefit Plans and Collective Bargaining Agreements (In part)

Pension Plans

The Company maintains defined benefit, non-contributory retirement plans for substantially all of its employees not participating in multi-employer pension plans. Safeway recognizes the funded status of its retirement plans on its consolidated balance sheet.

Other Post-Retirement Benefits

In addition to the Company’s pension plans, the Company sponsors plans that provide postretirement medical and life insurance benefits to certain employees. Retirees share a portion of the cost of the postretirement medical plans. Safeway pays all the costs of the life insurance plans. The Company also sponsors a Retirement Restoration Plan that provides death benefits and supplemental income payments for senior executives after retirement. All of these Other Post-Retirement Benefit Plans are unfunded. The following table provides a reconciliation of the changes in the retirement plans’ benefit obligation and fair value of assets over the two-year period ended January 1, 2011 and a statement of the funded status as of year-end 2010 and year-end 2009. Activity for 2009 includes the removal of the Canadian money purchase plan which had been previously presented within the table but has since been determined to be a defined contribution plan (in millions):

Amounts recognized in accumulated other comprehensive income consist of the following (in millions):

Safeway expects approximately $62.2 million of the net actuarial pension loss and $15.9 million of the prior service cost to be recognized as a component of net periodic benefit cost in 2011

Information for Safeway’s pension plans, all of which have an accumulated benefit obligation in excess of plan assets as of year-end 2010 and 2009, is shown below (in millions):

Required

a. 1. Determine the projected benefit obligation at the end of 2010 and 2009 (pension and other post-retirement benefits).

2. Determine the fair value of plan assets at the end of 2010 and 2009 (pension and other post-retirement benefits).

3. Determine the funded status at the end of 2010 and 2009 (pension and other postretirement benefits).

4. Why is the funded status of the other post-retirement benefits equal to the projected benefit obligation?

5. Do all of the pension plans have an accumulated benefit obligation in excess of plan assets?

b. Comment on the trend in projected benefit obligation and the funded status (pension and other post-retirement benefits).