Demise of unionized supermarkets

[klkla]

This quote from Jack Brown of Stater Bros caught my attention from the article linked at the bottom of the page:

“Thanks to loyal customer support over the past 62 years, Stater Bros. is the last unionized supermarket chain in the San Jacinto Valley. We’re proud to provide over 600 good paying union jobs that include excellent benefits and safe working conditions for our teams.”

That really hit home. Albertsons, Vons, Safeway, Lucky, Ralphs, and Alpha Beta just off the top of my head all had unionized operations there at one point and I'm probably forgetting some.

Growing up in Southern California I remember over twenty chains with UFCW employees that controlled over 90% of the market and now there are just three majors (Albertsons-Vons-Pavilions, Ralphs-Food4Less, Stater Bros) plus some smaller chains that control about 45% of the market. Take into account the fact that the three majors have no plans for expansion (and Ralphs-Food4Less has actually been retracting recently) and you wonder just how much lower that will go in the future.

So far only eight of the Haggen stores are being taken over by a unionized chain. When you include the Haggen closures plus those stores closed by the majors California will have lost over 100 unionized stores just this year alone. Food for thought.

BTW: There's still a couple more days for Ralphs-F4L or Stater Bros. to make offers on these stores but time is quickly running out.

As a former member of the UFCW that worked in the stores for over ten years this is very disheartening but inevitable as the influence of unions become less and less important in so many industries.

http://www.theshelbyreport.com/2015/10/ ... on-oct-28/

[storewanderer]

I wonder what the percentage of union chains controlling the SoCal market before the big strike in the mid 2000's was... I really do not think that strike did any unionized grocers any favors. Except for Stater and all of those non union chains. It did them some big favors.

Superior is non union at all locations?

[klkla]

The strike definitely had a long term negative impact on the big three with all of them closing more than 10% of their stores since.

According to the UFCW local 770 these are the current chains represented:

Alberstons/Vons/Pavlions, Ralphs/Food 4 Less, Stater Bros., Gelson's, El Super, Hows, Mayfair, Super A, Max, and Pioneer.

I guess someone should tell them Hows and Pioneer have been out of business for a while. The last Mayfair was converted to a Gelson's some time ago. Only 7 of El Super's 50 stores are unionized. And I'm not sure what Max is. Could that be Albertson's old warehouse format?

[pseudo3d]

The Max was indeed Albertsons "discount" brand for a while (early 1990s I think?)

I'm not too concerned about the demise of unionized supermarkets. I imagine it's very beneficial for some, but it's terrible for low level workers, when I worked at Kroger, getting a union membership would push an entry level worker's salary (already not very good) to sub-federal minimum wage levels.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

Here in Sacramento at the present time,the three largest union chains are Safeway,Raley's/Bel Air,and Save Mart/Foodmaxx.As recently as 20 years ago however,before the age of mega-mergers and big-boxes,the local unionized grocery scene was a lot more varied and competitive.Being a longtime UFCW member,I've never even bothered to even step into a Walmart neighborhood market even though I have one near my house and another near where I work.I'll close my remark here before I get political...

[storewanderer]

Sacramento has always been a kind of volatile grocery market and with all of the WinCos, Sprouts, Wal Marts, etc., it just doesn't look good. Nugget is also non union I believe?

The unique thing about Sacramento is there were many small independent 1-5 store unionized chains (Comptons, Vic's, Corti) and now Corti one locations remains.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

Sacramento has always been a kind of volatile grocery market and with all of the WinCos, Sprouts, Wal Marts, etc., it just doesn't look good. Nugget is also non union I believe?

The unique thing about Sacramento is there were many small independent 1-5 store unionized chains (Comptons, Vic's, Corti) and now Corti one locations remains.

Nugget is indeed non-union.Compton's Market is still in business though down to a single East Sac location like Corti Brothers.I grew up with the latter's Citrus Heights location during much of the 80's,as well as Jumbo Markets which lasted until the mid 1990's...