Wal-Mart, Driving Workers and Supermarkets Crazy

NYTIMES ^ | 10-19-03 | STEVEN GREENHOUSE

[Pikamax]

October 19, 2003 Wal-Mart, Driving Workers and Supermarkets Crazy By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

n February Wal-Mart will open its first grocery supercenter in California, offering everything from tires to prime meats, and that could be a blessing for middle-class consumers. The reason is simple: Wal-Mart's prices are 14 percent lower than its competitors', according to a study by the investment bank UBS Warburg.

But not everyone is rejoicing about Wal-Mart's five-year plan to open 40 supercenters in California, stores combining general merchandise and groceries that are expected to gobble up $3.2 billion in sales. California's three largest supermarket chains, Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons, are scared, and so are tens of thousands of supermarket workers whose union contracts have put them solidly in the middle class. The three grocers' fears of fierce competition from Wal-Mart and their related drive to cut costs are widely seen as the main reason behind the week-old strike by 70,000 workers at 859 supermarkets in Southern California.

Wal-Mart has already helped push more than two dozen national supermarket chains into bankruptcy over the past decade. That list includes names like Grand Union; Bruno's, once Alabama's largest supermarket chain; and Homeland Stores, formerly Oklahoma's largest. And unionized supermarket workers fear that Wal-Mart's invasion will oust them from the middle class by pulling down their wages and benefits, which, taken together, are more than 50 percent higher than those of Wal-Mart workers. At Wal-Mart, the average wage is about $8.50 an hour, compared with $13 at unionized supermarkets.

"Wal-Mart's superstores are going to have a devastating impact on California's supermarkets," said Burt Flickinger III, a retailing consultant, noting that union wages and prices are higher in California than in most of the country.

[ridesthemiles]

except that alot of people won't buy any type of fresh food at a walmart (I wouldn't).

I was on an extended trip in 2001 and bought alot of things at Wal-Mart, including fresh fruit and veggies. Didn't get anything I was suspicious of and everything tasted fine, IMO.

[dix]

The unions might have had their place years ago, but if I were an hourly wage earner today I would seriously think about where they fit today.

[ridesthemiles]

I don't want cost cutting on food, food handling, and preparation. I don't want some transient making $8/hr touching my chickens, my steaks, my cold cuts.

Where do you think Tyson's gets their help to process chickens ---LONG BEFORE the meat gets to the supermarket? Markets don't butcher the original animal, the processor does, and believe me, you never see who goes there to work.

[ridesthemiles]

I am single, I don't need six steaks or 12 pork chops or 4 chicken breasts...I buy cat food and paper products there and my food elsewhere.

Hey- I'm single, also, and if it's a good deal, I buy plenty and repack them into ziplocks in 3/4/whatever number is handy to thaw and use. Boneless pork cutlets on sale last week were $1.99. All meat, and good stuff. I bought 16 or so. Repack in 3 or 4 each, and I have meat for 2+ weeks at a he** of a price.

[Hank Kerchief]

right, on $8.50/hr, they've got plenty of cash for cat scans, surgery, whatever they might need. sure.

...so, everybody else who is earning $8.50/hr or less should have to pay for their medical expsenses, right?

Since when does something somebody wants give them a right to somebody else's money?

Hank

[ridesthemiles]

The real problem: a CEO is making millions of dollars and his hired bean counters sitting around trying to get him an even bigger piece of the pie. Move it to China, pay the workers a penny on the dollar and the CEO can afford anything his greedy heart can imagine. WTH!!!!!

That CEO is responsible to the stockholders of his company. Since there are far more pensions today than 40 years ago, what companies do you think hold Wal-Mart stock?

Get your head out of your behind. You want a good return on your mutual investments and pensions, and then you castigate a CEO for being careful and watching the bottom line. Trust me, you can't have it both ways. No profits means no increase in your pensions and investments.

[Normal4me]

You make a good point.

*runs off to clean out freezer* ;-)

[Radix]

Is there a FR.com policy which does not allow the posting of entire articles from the NY Times?

I simply will never open an ID account on the NYT's site. They can count my hit, but they will not be able to count me, or on me in any other way.

[open mind-closed fist]

Now, when I go into Wal Mart, I feel like I have stepped into a third world piss pot. In fact, I can about sum it up, I was in Super Walmart yesterday, a 30ish Hispanic woman checked out in front of me paying with various forms of Federal assistance money and while I was waiting in line a transvestite walked by (no lie). That's my typical Wal mart experience.

Ain't that the TRUTH. Everytime (as little as possible) I go to the local WalCrap I swear I'm the only English speaking customer and there are few store employee's that speak English fluently. Last visit, I walk out of the store and set off the theiving whistle because of cashier ineptness and some little Pakistani guy digs thru my bags for fifteen minutes. Grrrr...

[yhwhsman]

I don't want cost cutting on food, food handling, and preparation. I don't want some transient making $8/hr touching my chickens, my steaks, my cold cuts.

Crazy thought came to mind: so a transient making $13/hr is ok to touch your produce?

And with Walmart, isn't most of the cost-cutting from the fact that they can buy in such high quantities? If they do cut their own meat, you can bet your bottom dollar the butchers are making a lot more then $8.50 an hour.

[VOA]

The unions are destroying their own industries.

Right now they seem bent on finishing off Ralphs, Vons/Pavillions/Safeway and Albertsons
here in Southern California.

Even though I'm conservative, my family has union roots...so I've decided to
honor the picket line for at least two weeks.
But the goodwill to the union workers is not a bottomless well.
I've been suprised at the pointed comments on talk radio from callers...even when
some fairly conservative hosts have expressed some support to the unions.

I suppose these callers fit my demographics...lived in "flyover country" and
saw how many folks went from welfare (or no wage) to Wal-Marts $8.50/hr in places
with almost no jobs.
Then when I relocated to Southern California, got miserable service from
the unionized clerks making 50 to 100 percent higher compensation.

The unions need to cut a deal soon. They have underestimated how many of
their long-suffering cusotmers are willing to turn on them in not too much time.

[kezekiel]

The marketplace... I love it! You can't fool it for long.

I live in California, and I am witnessing an interesting phenomenon. Very, Very few people are crossing the picket lines and are instead suffering long lines at Stater Brothers or the independents. I don't know about the rest of them, but I wouldn't shop at Wal-Mart if the prices were 25% cheaper. The people who work at the local Von's know me by name, the store has great selection, and they sell, for the most part, food grown and made right here in America. Bugger Wal-Mart. Shaving a few cents off the price of junk isn't worth the cost, if you know what I mean.

[Prince Caspian]

Shaving a few cents off the price of junk isn't worth the cost, if you know what I mean.

Some like low prices, others like quality merchandise, still others value personal relationships. The market will sort it all out, as if by magic. Everybody gets to vote with their dollars.

[eeman]

Member ID: hilda_beast
Password: isaliar

It used to be "hildabeast" worked as user id, with the same password. Unfortunately, for whatever reason they won't take "hildabeast" as a valid user ID anymore. I personally don't mind registering at websites. I like to see what the earliest year of birth I can give them. In this case it was 1907

[kezekiel]

Some like low prices, others like quality merchandise, still others value personal relationships. The market will sort it all out, as if by magic. Everybody gets to vote with their dollars.

Agreed. What is present in the strike conditions is information. When people are made aware of the consequences of choices, they may choose differently. I don't want to live in a Wal-Mart world. It's just not worth it to me... I don't like the consequences.

[novacation]

So the unions response is to call a strike to hurt the hand that feeds them and bankrupt their employer. Unions are run by dimwits who don't want to understand that jobs, and wealth, and competition change. The people who unfairly get hurt are the shareholders. Safeway, the parent company of Von's, is a lackluster stock to begin with and a strike isn't going to help.

[eeman]

Is there a FR.com policy which does not allow the posting of entire articles from the NY Times?

There was a lawsuit againt FR or Jim Robinson a few years back I think the suit was brought by the Washington Post over this issue. The posting limitations are particularly relevant for the NYT, LAT, Wash Post. I rarely post articles but when I do, it is just an excerpt, regardless of the source

[Big Horn]

Are they saying the union raise my cost 14%

[fishbabe]

trust me,a lot of them are rubbing their hands thru their hair and blowing their noses and NOT washing their hands...after what i've seen,i'm surprised more of us haven't died from the food we eat....

[fishbabe]

they are well paid, but the workload is so crushing they cut corners you wouldn't want to know about.....