The legendary A&P grocery store chain, which will shutter its last store in three weeks, failed to get a buyer for 100 of its 296 stores, The Post has learned.

That’s 50 percent higher than previous estimates.

Rivals passed on the stores because they were either in unfavorable locations or had bad leases, sources said.

Thousands of employees will be laid off as the bankrupt company closes the last of its stores on Thanksgiving.

But there’s a silver lining, of sorts, for some of the displaced longtime employees.

Acme, which bought 71 of A&P’s stores, and Stop & Shop, which bought 25, are hiring more workers than A&P employed in those stores.

“A&P substantially understaffed its stores,” said John Niccollai, president of Local 464A.

An Acme store in Vernon, NJ, for example, is hiring 50 additional workers — on top of the 116 employees who worked at the former A&P.

Stop & Shop is hiring roughly 10 percent more staff than had worked in the A&P stores it bought, it said.