I received a mailer last week. It had an attractive young women on the cover flashing a winning smile. The headline read: “Kelly Ann loves her job — at your local Albertsons.”
It was from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union #324 in Buena Park. The UFCW was the bargaining unit involved in the five-month supermarket strike/lockout in 2003-04 affecting Ralphs, Vons/Pavilions and Albert-sons.
That labor action was a disaster and everyone lost. The stores lost billions of dollars in revenues.
The workers got nearly nothing out of it. Many UFCW members had gone into debt during the action — debt that’ll take years to pay off. And, without a substantial improvement in wages and benefits, many are worse off now than before the strike started. New hires get lower pay and fewer benefits than unionized senior counterparts.
Then there are the customers who found Costco, Smart and Final, Whole Foods, the 99-Cents Store, local mom-and-pops and the farmers’ markets. They all continue to pick up market share from shoppers who’ve abandoned the “big name” supermarket chains.
Perhaps unforeseen, especially by UCFW leaders, was the trend of merging and/or buying smaller non-union markets and groceries. Converting “big name” supermarkets to higher-priced “health food” boutiques is all part of an ongoing effort by grocery chains to further maximize income.
The mailer warned that Albertsons was on the verge of closing their supermarket at Wilshire Boulevard and Berkeley Street “and opening a Bristol Farms in its place.”
The UFCW mailer stressed that Albertsons’ union workers will be replaced by Bristol Farms’ nonunion workers “who will not get union wages, union retirement plan or union health plan” and that us taxpayers will be forced to pay medical costs for uninsured workers.
The UFCW mailer also said, “Bristol Farms doesn’t carry many of the items your family needs every day.” Predicting: “You will have to find a new place to do your daily shopping.” The mailer mentioned the higher pricing that prevails in Bristol Farms stores and a legacy of ongoing problems such as “dangerous health code violations and inaccurate register checkout scales” — implying problems are caused by low-paid (read nonunion) workers.
Readers are asked to call the union or log onto a “stopalbertsonsnow” Web site.
I’m not sure that “low paid” workers make more mistakes than the higher-priced workers. Aren’t “mistakes” made by disgruntled or incompetent employees, irregardless of pay scale?
Nevertheless, the mailer cops out with the tiny print at the bottom of the page: “This mailer is not intended to imply that the conditions described... are currently occurring at any Bristol Farms store or that there are any health code and/or weight and measurement code violations...”
It is also my understanding that Albertsons employees will be offered jobs at other Albertsons “less than 25-miles away,” in spite of implying that they would lose their jobs I’m sure the real reason for the possible change is that the marketing geniuses at Albertsons corporate offices are looking at the neighborhood around Wilshire and Berkeley and are thinking that the folks in the $1.5 million homes can afford to, and will gladly pay, 30 percent more at a Bristol Farms than they now pay at the existing Albertsons.
The fact that the Albertsons can cut labor costs is just icing on the Bristol Farms cake, and with customers willing to spend more on their purchases, it all adds up to lots of extra profitability.
I don’t shop at Wild Oats or Whole Foods and I won’t be shopping at Bristol Farms. I’ll buy my bread and produce at the Pico Farmers’ Market as I’ve done for the last four years. And, I’ll buy basics at a “best price” market nearby because I see no reason to pay more for soda, paper products, cleaning supplies, snacks and canned goods at a boutique grocer.
I’ll guess that lots of others will do the same. The corporate decision-makers will have to do without me, many old and faithful Albertsons customers and the loyal employees who have served that market and its customers well over the years.
If Bristol Farms comes in, only time will tell if Albertsons’ marketing geniuses made a good or bad decision. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and freelance writer.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 5, 2005. Read the original PDF.