Portland and SW Washington strike discussion

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Re: Portland and SW Washington strike discussion

Post by Super S »

Brian Lutz wrote: December 21st, 2021, 8:50 am In the end, the strike only lasted one day before a tentative agreement was reached:

https://komonews.com/news/local/union-c ... -meyer-qfc
I think the timing this close to Christmas could have been a factor...Fred Meyer tends to get really busy in the week leading up to Christmas. Yesterday the parking lot was full to near capacity....they could have potentially lost a lot of business, even though the Longview store was not part of the strike.
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Re: Portland and SW Washington strike discussion

Post by bryceleinan »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: December 16th, 2021, 1:49 pm
storewanderer wrote: December 15th, 2021, 6:45 pm Kroger reminds me quite similarly of the old Safeway chain in about 2005. You know, they were not dying yet, but they were so customer unfriendly and so employee unfriendly that it was clear they were heading in a path toward the end.

But I am probably back to doing 50% of my shopping at Smiths the past couple months thanks to very bad pricing moves by Safeway and that Raley's One thing... Too bad.
If Kroger continues down this path toward the end, I wonder who would buy them?
Target would be one of the few who could pass antitrust, otherwise, you’d see it split into several companies, basically undoing the Fred Meyer merger.
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Re: Portland and SW Washington strike discussion

Post by HCal »

bryceleinan wrote: December 21st, 2021, 5:43 pm Target would be one of the few who could pass antitrust, otherwise, you’d see it split into several companies, basically undoing the Fred Meyer merger.
I doubt Target could pass antitrust, considering they are selling significant volumes of groceries at most stores now.

Kroger could be split up into pieces, like Albertsons LLC was, or it could be acquired by private equity (Apollo Management???) or perhaps merge with a foreign retailer that has a US presence like Ahold Delhaize. None of these are likely to be good outcomes for the company.
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Re: Portland and SW Washington strike discussion

Post by storewanderer »

HCal wrote: December 21st, 2021, 5:54 pm
bryceleinan wrote: December 21st, 2021, 5:43 pm Target would be one of the few who could pass antitrust, otherwise, you’d see it split into several companies, basically undoing the Fred Meyer merger.
I doubt Target could pass antitrust, considering they are selling significant volumes of groceries at most stores now.

Kroger could be split up into pieces, like Albertsons LLC was, or it could be acquired by private equity (Apollo Management???) or perhaps merge with a foreign retailer that has a US presence like Ahold Delhaize. None of these are likely to be good outcomes for the company.
I think the thing is most (all?) of Kroger's divisions perform strongly. They have above average per store volumes in basically every market they operate in. When Albertsons and Safeway had problems there were multiple divisions that were clearly struggling and bleeding sales. For all I can say about Kroger, I don't think they are bleeding sales; quite the opposite, they seem to keep building volume.

I really thought Albertsons was on a good path to take significant market share from Kroger. However in the past six months they have made some changes to perimeter and my perception is quality has decreased. Further, they seem to be discontinuing slow moving SKUs in center store which is fine but their center store mix starts to look more limited/like Kroger yet their pricing is across the board much higher. The pricing is where they lose me. Just absurd pricing across the board out of this "NorCal" division. This division needs to give up the Reno Stores to a different division that can price them properly to compete against Smiths and Wal Mart effectively. Pull down a price feed from Vegas or something and apply it in this market.
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Re: Portland and SW Washington strike discussion

Post by pseudo3d »

I've seen reports on the Internet that King Soopers is looking for temporary workers as the union's current contract reaches expiration, but nothing on the Houston stores. Neither side has claimed victory yet, nor is there a strike, and I haven't even seen calls for temp workers yet. The union just isn't going to win this one no matter what.
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Re: Portland and SW Washington strike discussion

Post by veteran+ »

pseudo3d wrote: December 22nd, 2021, 10:44 pm I've seen reports on the Internet that King Soopers is looking for temporary workers as the union's current contract reaches expiration, but nothing on the Houston stores. Neither side has claimed victory yet, nor is there a strike, and I haven't even seen calls for temp workers yet. The union just isn't going to win this one no matter what.
Well, I sure hope they do and BIG!

:-)

The employees deserve it. They need to stand strong and do not concede like they always have for those wonderful false promises that never come.
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Re: Portland and SW Washington strike discussion

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: December 23rd, 2021, 8:28 am

Well, I sure hope they do and BIG!

:-)

The employees deserve it. They need to stand strong and do not concede like they always have for those wonderful false promises that never come.
Win big by what definition? Protecting the long tenured employees to at least get them a raise that trends with inflation and maintain existing benefit levels?

What about the new employees... is anyone fighting for them?

I guess at least the first thing is better than a complete roll over... plus these chains do actually need to keep their stores staffed... I feel like in this labor market the unions hold some pretty good cards.
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Re: Portland and SW Washington strike discussion

Post by veteran+ »

Yes on all :-)

And I agree on the leverage!
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Re: Portland and SW Washington strike discussion

Post by pseudo3d »

veteran+ wrote: December 23rd, 2021, 8:28 am
pseudo3d wrote: December 22nd, 2021, 10:44 pm I've seen reports on the Internet that King Soopers is looking for temporary workers as the union's current contract reaches expiration, but nothing on the Houston stores. Neither side has claimed victory yet, nor is there a strike, and I haven't even seen calls for temp workers yet. The union just isn't going to win this one no matter what.
Well, I sure hope they do and BIG!

:-)

The employees deserve it. They need to stand strong and do not concede like they always have for those wonderful false promises that never come.
I'm talking from a pragmatic experience.

The way I see it, there's no long-term win.

- They're already running behind non-union H-E-B in terms of market share and there's no other unionized grocer in town to support in case of a strike.
- A two-tier system like in California would only hurt new hires to the store in a time when there's a labor shortage, and long-term the 2004 strike has been a disaster to the SoCal stores in terms of store count and market share.
- By state law, any benefits the union workers get, the non-union workers get too. They don't pay dues, but also have no vote.
- If push comes to shove, especially if there's another bigger market that needs saving, it's possible that Kroger could nuke or downsize the entire division. I don't see this as a realistic outcome (or at least a likely one) but it has been done historically in the past. Kroger capitulating beyond Houston's "Last, Best, and Final Offer" would send a message that they're a pushover, closing the Houston division stores would send a message that they're not screwing around.
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Re: Portland and SW Washington strike discussion

Post by storewanderer »

The journeymen clerks get $1 raise per year for the next 3 years. I don't think they had gotten any raises in at least 2 years... at least this put some closure on the situation I guess.



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