City of Long Beach makes grocery stores pay $4 hour extra for “Hero Pay”...

Duffy LaCoronilla

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Apr 27, 2016
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...so Kroger closes its stores in Long Beach.

Now those “Heroes” are unemployed.

Totally predictable.

Yay Long Beach!


“As a result of the city of Long Beach's decision to pass an ordinance mandating extra pay for grocery workers, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close long-struggling store locations in Long Beach,'' according to a company statement. "This misguided action by the Long Beach City Council oversteps the traditional bargaining process and applies to some, but not all, grocery workers in the city.

"The irreparable harm that will come to employees and local citizens as a direct result of the city of Long Beach's attempt to pick winners and losers, is deeply unfortunate. We are truly saddened that our associates and customers will ultimately be the real victims of the city council's actions.''
 

manbearpig

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May 11, 2009
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“As a result of the city of Long Beach's decision to pass an ordinance mandating extra pay for grocery workers, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close long-struggling store locations in Long Beach,'' .......
As usual the devil is in the details.

how are the other grocery stores handling the wage increase?
 
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afoaf

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have you been in a Food4Less?

even the affluent-adjacent locations are a fkn zombie wasteland
 

StuAzole

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...so Kroger closes its stores in Long Beach.

Now those “Heroes” are unemployed.

Totally predictable.

Yay Long Beach!

"....we have made the decision to permanently close two long struggling stores...."

Some people might see this your way, while others might see Kroger as a shitty corporate entity for closing a store rather than paying its employees a few bucks more as they risk their health during COVID.
 

Duffy LaCoronilla

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Apr 27, 2016
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As usual the devil is in the details.

how are the other grocery stores handling the wage increase?
Yes, the stores were struggling. I fail to see how forcing a 20-30% increase in labor costs would help.

Trader Joe’s phased in $4 an hour increase with the last $2 just starting recently. They did it because they wanted to and that’s perfectly ok.

TJ’s is non-union btw.

Kroger stores are unionized.
 

manbearpig

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Yes, the stores were struggling. I fail to see how forcing a 20-30% increase in labor costs would help.

Trader Joe’s phased in $4 an hour increase with the last $2 just starting recently. They did it because they wanted to and that’s perfectly ok.

TJ’s is non-union btw.

Kroger stores are unionized.
I never said it would help.

I said they were on their way out the door and you’re pretending it was solely because of the $4 increase.

it was not.

devil. Details. Something something.
 

afoaf

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Jun 25, 2008
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fkn zombies as you call them need to buy food too. The net result is businesses closed, more people out of work, and hardship for those who needed those stores to buy their food.
I disagree

those areas are changing

what the article doesn't mention is the Trader Joe's, Happy Acres, and Gelson's
that opened up in the area because housing prices have tripled in the last decade
and changed the composition of the neighborhood and demand for low-rent grocers
 

Ifallalot

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Dec 17, 2008
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I disagree

those areas are changing

what the article doesn't mention is the Trader Joe's, Happy Acres, and Gelson's
that opened up in the area because housing prices have tripled in the last decade
and changed the composition of the neighborhood and demand for low-rent grocers
Ralph's is low-rent?
 

afoaf

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Jun 25, 2008
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moreso Food4Less

we have had a couple of those bigger chain stores close around here while
the 1%er markets have come in behind them

Long Beach is changing incredibly fast
 

ghost_of_lewis_samuels

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Oct 27, 2019
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the employees get shafted either way.

- low wage and work through the pandemic dealing with potentially getting sick every day
- dealing with corporate policies that ask them to enforce mask requirements
-not prioritized for vaccines

essential to be sacrificed
 
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plasticbertrand

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what the article doesn't mention is the Trader Joe's, Happy Acres, and Gelson's
that opened up in the area because housing prices have tripled in the last decade
and changed the composition of the neighborhood and demand for low-rent grocers
Some people just can't deal with change.

First it was the coal jobs, than oil jobs, now Kroger's. Good riddance to all.
There are plenty of other industries and new opportunities opening up but the crybabies never look at those numbers.

Sprouts, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Frasier Farms, Jimbo's, Happy Acres are all killing it in the I-5 perimeter.

Gelson's is not but it's because it sucks ass (at least the one in PB).

If you're on the budget, you can eat good and cheap from Trader Joe's.
Besides, there's always Aldi. lolo

Kroger's closing should be a cause for national celebration just as the Keystone pipeline was.

I've never seen a Kroger's product without corn syrup in it.

What's worse, Kroger's or Cosmo cover with a fat lady on it who probably shops at Kroger's?
 
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Random Guy

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Seems like a lot of the people who work at Trader Joe’s aren’t your typical grocery store employee. Like, cashiers with masters degrees seems to be a thing
When I was in high school I worked at a grocery store. Maybe when I age out of my current career I can go back to that
But right now I really don’t have the bandwidth to get a masters
 

Duffy LaCoronilla

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Apr 27, 2016
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the employees get shafted either way.

- low wage and work through the pandemic dealing with potentially getting sick every day
- dealing with corporate policies that ask them to enforce mask requirements
-not prioritized for vaccines

essential to be sacrificed
-Grocery store workers get paid pretty well for low/no skilled labor and have plenty of opportunities to advance their carreers.

-Last I checked it wasn’t “corporate policy“ mandating masks in Californi, it was Gavin Newsom (by fiat).

-Rates of covid infection for grocery store workers (TJ’s in the link) are not significantly different than the rest of the communities in which the stores operate....