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"one of the most heavily unionized work forces in the business"... Funny how unions come up in this. I wonder if they will look for a taxpayer bailout for them like they did for GM and Chrystler.
They said they can't compete with other stores on pricing...95% of A&P work force union. HMMM?
Yep, a replay of the Auto Companies. Soon to be played again by many State/Local Entities. The Pension Costs are something that can only be relieved through Bankruptcy since the Unions will never give in on this point. There are a lot of Companies and Gov't Entities (Including the Federal Gov't) that are saddled with these Union engineered promises that cannot be kept.
I'm generally no fan of unions, but I can't help thinking that if fund managers had not invested pension funds so heavily in the stock market, many of these funds would be in a lot better shape.
Pension funds everywhere, union or not, are going to be a tremendous drain on resources after this depression.
Working for a Consumer Packaged Goods company, I used to call on A&P stores, and others in my assigned territory. A&P stores were always the worst. Lots of out of stocks, sale items not available, and in a few stores, you'd go in to talk to the Store Manager, only to find him asleep at his desk, by the Courtesy Counter.
I remember going into some stores, only to find perishables, yogurt in this case, with code dating a year old, due to the clerk not rotating shelf stock. I attempted to rotate and remove the moldy product from the shelf, and the union clerk told me not to. I insisted that he do it, since the product could make a customer sick. He refused to do so, saying he didnt have time. I said... for a YEAR you didnt have time? He was pissed.
this is one of the reasons A&P went under. They were always the sloppiest, dirtiest, poorly run stores I called on. I'm honestly amazed that they managed to last this long, to be honest. A&P employees never seemed to care about store conditions.
when I called on their HQ, their buyers always seemed to have their hands out, ready to take any graft the sales people could give them. Good riddance to A&P.
actually autoworkers were on par with their foreign counterparts , the difference came in with healthcare costs . that is the problem in the usa regardless of unions or non union shops. soon only the rich will have healthcare
Aggressive labor unions with their crappy work ethics, Federal and state minimum wages driving up cost, and the Great Recession caused by the excesses of the Federal Reserve have taken its toll on A&P.
Socialist America is going under. No domestic manufacturing can survive under these oppressive economic conditions. The service sector is following manufacturing;s foot step. The Federal government can't extend endless unemployment benefits forever with fiat currency to prop-up a failed economic policy or support a people too proud to work for less than minimum wage.
I haven’t been in an A&P grocery store since they changed their name to Farmer Jack in SE Michigan back in the late eighties. I can’t answer for their current condition, but there was a time when A&P operated the best stores in the Detroit area. My late father was a 31 year employee, member of the Amalgamated Meatcutters Union, and a meat department manager for over 20 years. I remember his stores consistently being clean, well stocked, and run by motivated and conscientious employees. There was a real camaraderie amongst A&P employees and I remember going to some great company picnics when I was a kid. It’s a shame to see A&P slide from being the country’s #1 grocery chain to bankruptcy.
Does anybody remember what grocery stores used to look like, buildings with warehouse interiors and shelves with basic non-descript cash lines? In the past 10 years they have revamped all the store around where I live with fancy decores and the like which cost the stores a fortune to do. I don't need my grocery stores to have fancy wood paneled deli counters, a fancy sushi bar, with decorative lighting etc. Perhaps its those pointless investments that have cost them, huge investment without an increase in sales = loss
silly, it is important to buy groceries in stores that feel much like our living rooms at home.
ahh yes how silly of me indeed, what was I thinking.
A & P actually went bankrupt in 1962, and they just figured it out.
A&P treats truckers like manure. I'm glad they're dressed in "red". With all the free truck driver labor I'm surprized. Glad to see them down, and out. Bye Bye.. Maybe you can get a truck driver to walk your legal pappers around the court house for ya.
In a&p's core area all the supermarkets are union . none of them have a competitive edge as far as labor goes. there is in fact a huge problem with the management of this company, also known as the 5% non-union. as an employee for almost 40 years, I have seen many poor if not asinine decisions made. lets take the biggest blunder first. Cheat & Steal , I mean C&S warehouse. years ago, A&P decided to hire the management of the defunct Grand Union. they decided to sell our warehouse and go with C&S. a very poorly written contract gave C&S the upper hand in almost every issue. shortages miss selects damaged goods just to name a few of the problems run rampant with the deliveries. management caused the problem,a huge one, that now the rank and file must deal with . the boys in montvale still got their bonus's and drove company cars with all their other perks. but at the bottom it is still the guy ,the union guy who must deal with the unhappy customer and make up lame excuses why we dont have a sale item. then there is the issue of trucking fees Kelly Ripa and the mountains of useless papers and clipboards just to name a few that I wont even get into that were all created by the fools at the top. so if an investor is looking for his money , look in their pockets not the pockets of the UNION members who are just following orders and caring for the customer.
hard to believe,but the 95% of us who actually work in the stores are not responsible for A&P's difficulties..we go to work,do our jobs, and are the ones who have to deal with the day to day nonsense sent down by the 5% who have no clue what it is like on store level...their bad decisions are what hurt the company...A&P has always operated on the percentage rather than volume system...just do the math...they would rather sell 10 items at 40%,rather than 100 items at 15%...that is the reason Price Club and others stores can offer lower prices...not the cost of their work force..an other huge mistake that management made is that every store has to have certain set goods for sale...not a good idea in their perishable departments..one of the main reasons people shop in our stores was because they knew where the things were that they wanted..every other week we have crews come in and re-set and remove their favorite items..Waldbaums in particular has done little for their Jewish customers,the very people who gave them their strong market share in the first place...so lets get real here...put the blame where it belongs...it wasn't the 95%...it was the 5% who played with the company like it was their own pet toy..supermarkets belong to their neighborhoods..let them reflect that in what they stock,not some silly list that means automatic waste and loss
unions are not to blame when the executives mess up...the contract merely protects all the workers...yes there are slackers, but for the most part the workers just want to do their jobs and go home...the way A&P has manged their many companies is to blame for their losses...they have managed to take away any pride that workers feel for a job well done...the only answer management seems to have is to cut hours and that results in longer check-out lines and very unhappy customers...fix that Kelly Rippa...you encourage people to shop,but the long lines negate any positivity that the Savings Project might have had
Yea, the race to the bottom continues unabated. 151 years in business. How in the world did they manage to stay in business that long with those nasty unions around. Well, you can at least take solace in the fact the employees will soon be making as little as you do Dave-1384240. Feel better now?
btw, I'm a dying breed I guess. A business owner who still realizes how important an advanced wage structure was, and still is important to our well being as a producing nation.
Metalworker-1:
Most of the younger men and women nowadays will not understand your post. I suspect that Dave-1384240 is one of these. He will learn over time. He will be happy when wages are lowered to minimum wages for most workers. He doesn't believe that HE will be affected. He has not learned that $7.25 per hour (current minimum wage) will not buy a $25,0000 new car. Or a down payment on even a small house. When the cunsummer is "tapped-out", where will all these small and large businesses sell their goods and/or services. Tougher times economically are ahead; perhaps dangerous times also!
A&P's problem isn't the unionized work force. It's the lack of diversification in suppliers. Three companies make up the vast majority of A&P's wholseale sources. The story points out that A&P was unable to negotiate better prices from them - because the suppliers have little competition for the chain's business.
By contrast, Wal-Mart drives a bitter bargain with every supplier it uses. God help the company that finds itself selling most or all of its product to Wal-Mart, then they are squeezed even harder.
When I was a very litttle boy, both A&P and the Jewel Tea Company had route trucks that came to the door. It was a real treat the day those trucks came into the neighborhood!
A&P will get through this, and probably in the process emerge with more competitive prices. If the company is wise, it will also emerge with a much broader list of suppliers.
In business, it really is survival of the fittest. A business cannot allow the tail to wag the dog whether it be a union, pension plan, work rules, suppliers, poor management, or whatever. Perhaps A&P has just reached the end of its evolutionary chain and it is time for it to become extinct. Such is life. Adapt or perish.
There are plenty of strong companies that run on unionized work, like my employer UPS. The product/service costs and satisfying customers should be number one no doubt, but a lot of it depends on innovation. Seems like A&P was lacking in that area.
metalworker, half of the $25,000 is labor if not more. They charge so much they have priced themselves out of the range of most working people. These are the wages, retirements and health care arranged by union contracts. I for one wouldn't buy one of these cars and refuse to support their Cadillac everything. Most of my transportation is antique and it will stay that away.
A&P was not trucker friendly and quite the opposite. They have no respect for drivers and used as much free labor as they could get. I think they look good in "red".
Capitalism is a double-edged sword! Labor costs have killed them! The unions skimmed off the cream, and we are left with the dregs. The issue is not with the salaries they paid to their workforce but the taxes and the labor dues and the payola!
We are a society of charlatans and thieves and we have arrived at the end of the road
William Demuth:
Surely you are not casting ALL the blame on Labor Unions! Perhaps there is enough greed to go around in the business owners, stockholders, government, banking industry and etc. Remember Unions ask for raises about every 2 to 5 years. Owners ask for a raise every quarter year. There is a limit to the number of straws placed on every camel's back, and on every country's economy!
Spoken like a Corporate shrill! The fat cats at the top are raking in millions and the workers are seeing there pay and benefits reduced every year. Yeah those evil unions are destroying this country. The real'' charlatans and thieves'' are right at the very top.
Tom, spoken like an ignorant person who has no idea what the true cost of union labor is. Nobody is against someone making a decent salary for a day's work, trouble is-unions reward laziness by making sure that even the slackers continue to get over compensated for doing very little.
Yep Demar is right, the only slackin off will be done by the overstaffed management!
Demar,
Funny, how you start off your rant about me. You know NOTHING about me. Then you whine about what the true cost of what union labor is. Really, just what facts do you have to back up your statement?
Could be a number of factors leading to this company's demise but what if it truly is a race to the bottom. I know our household has cut back on non essentials and in the grocery budget we have reduced our spending considerably. It would be a sever warning if grocery stores start to see it being to difficult to continue in business. It may go a little like this...
Today XYZ grocery store files for BK, sources say too much low priced competition or bad management.
Another major grocery chain files for BK protection, says we have nowhere else to cut costs.
Local grocery operators are under the gun and are closing their doors by the hundreds.
Many go hungry due to no funds and lack of stores to purchase from...Food banks are depleted.
Tax cuts for rich...Working, their economy looks solid, Tiffanie's reports record sales, While JC Penny is kaput.
there is a super fresh roughly a mile from my home. only an outlet of a small local chain is closer. nonetheless, i shop at super fresh only as a last resort. it is absolutely, categorically, head-and-shoulders the worst chain grocery it has ever been my misfortune to patronize. stupid, disinterested help, automated check-out apparatus that is down more often than not, glaring institutional lighting...... the list goes on ad nauseam.
granted, this is anecdotal. but it seems to me that a&p needs to look at more than unions and supply chain problems as the sources of their difficulties.
Before all blame is placed on Unions as the cause of everything bad in the economy...you should take a long look at why unions were started in the first place...its in the history books if only you can read...child labor, sweat shops labor practices, there are a lot of evils practiced by corporations that the unions fight against...everyone moans about off-shoring of factories by American corporations...have you ever wondered why? Because in third world countries, corporations don't have to pay decent wages to the workers, don't have to worry about environmental pollutions, don't have to worry about toxic ingredientants in the products produced...and when these things pop up in the American economy...oh, well...that's the fault of "insert name here"....a third world country that lacks the protections that we in America have. So for all of you who think corporatations are so great...just wait...their cut-throat practices are out there waiting for you.
Irene Yar
So true, people think this all happened by accident, these people put the economy in reverse to lower wages and the housing market, they don't want more RICH people, they want to rule the world, at the rate this mess is going it will get very nasty, these people will end up the target of crime, people like them are not looking at the real picture everyone thinks Obama is a socialist which is not true he knows that there is only so much people can take and the out come will be riots in the streets POOR aginst the RICH this is what is waiting around the next corner for America, and this is all caused by peoples greed .....
I fully agree with you. As a union member who sees that unions can often do the wrong thing, the fact is without the unions, workers would be suffering under the heavy handedness of corporations and municipalities.
Labor unions had a purpose when they were started, no doubt about it. Now unfortunately they have become a major part of the problem instead of part of the solution. I have worked for over 35 years and can proudly say I never worked for a unionized company. I have not been forced to worked 20 hour days for minimum wage and have been treated fairly in every way. Unions have driven compensation costs out of the ballpark for many companies. How anyone can justify 30 -40 dollars per hour for assembly line works, not including benefit costs is beyond me. I personally know grocery store employees making 25+ dollars per hour as cashiers, really they don't have to do anything besides slide items and put them in a bag. At least when I was growing up they had to punch in prices and know how to do math to make change.
If you work hard doing whatever it is you do - you deserve to make enough to have a decent standard of living. At least cashiers have a job that provides a good service. Those that caused financial chaos in the banks and the world are still making millions in bonuses alone. No unions there and that breed of work ethic caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs!!!
I suspect most of the anti-union comments are coming from a US Chamber of Commerce Computer.
Agreed. Anti-union folks don't often have much to bolster their opinions other than weak-ass anecdotes.
During college I worked briefly in a unionized store. It was the worst work experience of my life. All the people that had been there forever, just stood around and did nothing. They couldn't be fired and they knew it. The managers had no ability to do anything about it and they knew it.
For someone with good work ethic starting in a unionized store was a huge wakeup call. Knowing that no matter how hard I worked, my pay and raises were going to be based not on my ability but simply how long I worked there. I quit that place not long after for a job that was willing to pay me on how hard I worked. I made twice as much twice as quickly than if I would have had to wait for union approved pay raises.
I worked for A&P 18 years in their warehouse in Yeadon Pa. ,which was located just outside of Philadelphia. They closed the Warehouse and stores in 1982. They reopened some stores and called them "Super Fresh"and groceries were shipped by independent Warehouses.A CEO was hired in the late 70s and he said "trying to turn the A&P around was like a row boat pushing a Cruise Ship "Yes, I was Union and I am drawing a Union Pension. We were told by Management that we were the most efficent warehouse in the Company. The Unions did not hurt the A&P the people at the upper echelon and management all the way down the line hurt the Company . They did not change with the times
Yup, those evil rich folks at the top.
So you had the most efficient warehouse in the company, ie: against other union plants. Not sure that really means anything, except that you were the "least costly".
Bond holders will win ,stock holders will lose. typical stock manipulation. They will play the game of manipulating the stock and in the end it will be the bondholders that win out...Case and point...Six Flags, they did the same thing and screwed the stockholders. It's legal and unregulated. Do Not Buy the bankrupt stock...YOU WILL LOSE AGAINST THESE GAME PLAYERS.
Interesting how the union-bashers are out today (paid corporate shills for the most part.) Unions didn't just arise to make our prices go up. Corporate powers abused workers, just like in China today, and our grandparents rose up against unfair labor practices to make our work lives less torturous and fairer. Workers' wages have gone up far slower than the business owners' profits, even with evil unions threatening to take some of the profits for safer work conditions and shorter hours. Perhaps those decrying the unions' influence would prefer to return to sweatshops and 6 and a half day work weeks.
What I find ironic is that back in the 20's, A&P grew large by destroying its mom and pop competition with arson and any means they could to shut down other grocers. They hired goon squads. WalMart has used this business model with legal means more recently. They did not play fair. While I am sad that its workers will lose their jobs, there is a certain gratifying closure in the history of this business.
Agreed, at one point corporations abused workers, just like in China today. But for the U.S. that was many many years ago. Now the unions have decided that turn-about is fair play, their is horrendous greed within the unions.
One only needs to Google the data on wages over the past 20 years to see that blaming the Unions is a joke. Wages and benefits have remained flat and in many cases been reduced. The fact is that corporations and businesses with their own unions (what do you think the Chamber of Commerce is) have shipped jobs over seas. The US government encouraged a flood of imports subsidized by foreign governments, who in turn flood the market with cheap goods. Blaming the Unions is propaganda.
Don't worry guys. The lowering of wages will allow us to buy the super cheap car made in India, the low priced clothes from China, and everyone can just abandon ther house, as they won't be able to pay their mortgages. Don't worry, when the wages in Chinan and India o to high, there ar eother poor countries with no regulation in Asia and africa that will tke their jobs - keeping prices low! The only question will be how we will buy their goods when we have no jobs at all. We should all consider training as domstic servants, as those Billionaires will need folks to take care of them in their 6 houses.
The long term established roles of a ruling class are reinstating themselves, where they own the land, set the wages, and are treated with the overwhelming respect deserved by a person that grew up inheriting all and working none. Trust in the benovolence of these folks, as they know what is best for those that work, which has been shown historically. Those with overreaching power will always do what is best for the masses, as shown in Feudal Europe, Feudal China, early industrialized countries and so many other places.
It is not clear to me why so many people fought for wages, better living conditions, and a better environment in the past. Didn't they see how the markets were taking care of everything back then, with no regulation or unions? The constant fiscal panics, depressions and other issues had no relations to a total lack of regulations. The famines in Ireland and other places had nothing to do with the total power of an entitled elite using their power to extract every dime from those that work. We should be proud of these folks - as they have had our best interests at heart for so long. We should all curse those nasty unions and those money grubbing workers that dare to ask for ANY of the record corporate profits ginve to those that have toiled so long and hard with their inheritance, to make it grow.
Friends, we all have to appreciate those that are born to wealth, amass huge fortunes through speculation - while producing little nothing and paying as little in taxes as possible. The hard work of investing an inheritance is very difficult. We all know the challenges of taking lots and lots of money and making it grow!
What we need in America is the ability to grow companies even larger, as we want them to be too large to employ. Perhaps a single company can be created with vast efficiency that will produce all the goods an service we need, in the cheapest places possible, with as much automated as possible! If we can get it to where everything is automated, then those that invest will not have to deal with hirinag any people, and can have their automated factories rape to earth of the resources, create all the god, harvest the crops and pacakage them all up, all with no workers. I just hope we can find some new planets in which to sell the goods, as we won't have anyone here that has a job anymore, but perhaps all those that have inherited their wealth can buy goods from each other?
Retailing has always been a low-margin business (just the nature of things - relatively low capital investment combined with a high inventory turnover), and food retailing is at the low end of that dynamic. Cost of goods sold is obviously a key determinant of profitability, along with labor and utilities. Given the on-going secular decline in the percent of American budgets spent on food (certainly of the supermarket nature) and combine it with the inability to "outsource" to low-labor-cost countries and the sensitivity to increasing energy costs (refrigeration and lighting), it's apparent that the basic food-retailing model is inherently prone to failure.
Attempts to move to higher-value-added revenues (such as on-site prepared meals) can be problematic in the face of high embedded labor costs. But more challenging than payroll is the notion of obsolete brand-equity. The A&P brand has been mismanaged ever since I was a child over 50 years ago. Wegman's, et al, have shown how a brand can be used to generate above-average profits from the same square footage.
So, as always, when push comes to shove, it still boils down to management. Labor is a component of the P&L, but seldom the key determinant of long-term success. Those two items (the P&L and success) are highly related, but hardly identical. Really good management remains focused on the latter even when dealing with the former.
Retailing has always been a low-margin business!!! Wow, where the heck do you shop.
My wife is paid (and treated) like a sweatshop worker at Walmart and they certainly don't have an issue with their income. I think it's time to scrap their union or start hiring minimum wage kids to do the job. Loss of union bennies are a lot better than loss of jobs and a tanking business.
I'll also note that if their suppliers won't decrease costs, it's hardly possible to do much else than cut the fat from their workforce spending.
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Ultimately a loss of union benefits equals a loss of jobs, as we have seen over and over again in the post-Reagan economic cram-down.
Russellm ....... because of the lack of bennies ,when you get sick you will go to the hospital and the tax payers will pick up the tab. That is just more corporate welfare.
Wow, looks like spelling is no longer a priority of the education sytem in this country.
:(
LOL...wouldn't want to hurt anyones feelings.
Ha! I didn't even think Education was a priority of the 'indoctri... er...education system' in this country.
sytem? Lol
Hooray Irene, you understand..... it's unfortunate that so few others do....
C & S wholesale has destroyed a lot of good grocery companys. if you ever seen one of there warehouses you would never buy from any store they supply. c & s is what is wrong with businesses they sure dont help. they sure didnt help P & C FOODS now did they and they pretty much did the same to the original TOPS MARKET. C&S are just typical scumbags.
As fun as it is to blame the unions, aren't most of A&P's traditional competition unionized as well and have similar labor costs (Safeway, Kroger, etc.)? Maybe they are drowning for the same reason Sears and Kmart are; the competion does a better job than they do.
When I was a kid (50+years ago) the A&P was the only store near us. It was dingy, poorly lighted and the produce was weeks old. That was a far cry from the new Jewel just down the street. Let them all close!
I've never been overly impressed with A&P, either. I wouldn't miss them if they disappeared, but that's just my opinion.
I'd miss them. We have them here along with BJs and a Costco on its way. Although the clubs, and Walmart are cheaper, I find the produce at the A&P to be of better quality and the variety of products much better. In addition there are many things that you just don't want or need to buy in bulk. I think both types of stores have their use and I'd hate to lose either one.
One of the things I've noticed with the anti-union crowd is the fact that they feel they don't need one to do well. That may very well be true in some cases. If you're educated, have a nice safe job at a good employer and have never or think you will never experience hardship, this thinking makes perfect sense. It's reinforced by business owners making threats that they can no longer compete unless wages for average workers come down. The safe employees will take that owner's side more often than not -- after all, the business owner will cut their nice safe job unless the evil unions are busted.
The reality for a lot of people is different. There are some really awful employers out there who will take advantage of their labor force at any turn if given the chance. There are also some jobs that don't have a lot of advancement potential (such as the grocery industry...) but have a workforce that needs a salary progression worked out over time. Put aside the assumption for a second that everyone can be a white collar, educated worker if they just try. It's not possible; some people are needed to do simpler tasks, and they should be paid a decent wage to do it. Should people who didn't get lucky when IQs were handed out be denied the possibility of maintaining a household? We sure didn't think so in the 50s & 60s. A very average guy could go to work in a factory, supermarket or other unionized job and build up enough seniority over time to have a decent living. Nothing fancy, but they wouldn't be spending their lives working for $7.25 an hour either. In turn, this allowed a middle class to develop, buy the products businesses were producing, and the economy prospered.
I happen to work for a great employer in an interesting job, but I can definitely sympathize with people who have to work a crap job for a crap employer -- I've done it before. Are there abuses in unions? Yes, some of them are very bad too. But think about two things:
Imagine having a contract that spells out everything you are expected to do, what you are paid, and all the work rules associated with your job. To me, that would be worth the tradeoff in union dues if I worked for a bad employer. Especially in the white collar ranks, people forget that even at-will employment is a two-way bargain. If all employers have too much leverage, simply quitting your job may not get you the satisfaction you want.
This is an issue even for the educated, as white collar jobs move overseas more and more and as "re-classification" of jobs has many jobs that are not management as non-hourly jobs where comp time is not required. Almost the entire software industry is "exempt", which mean the folks that create and support software and systems get a salary and can be forced to work as many hours as possible and be on call 24/7. Comp time is NOT required for these jobs - and is at the discretion of the company and managers.
The main reason the unions have sch backlash from people is that the vast multitudes of workers have none of the protections - and those legions of folks with no protections are also growing. Having said that, we should just be happy we are allowed to work, even if it is for 40% of what we made 2 years ago, right? I'll meet y'all at the bottom.
that once had protections
So you are saying that if I am already successful, educated, and intelligent, that I have no use for unions. Unions are looking for uneducated, unsuccessful, sheep that can't think or act for themselves and need to pay someone else to do it for them. Sounds about right. Thanks for clearing that up.
Well, if that's what you read I would dispute the educated and intelligent. Certainly you have zero comprehension of the history of labor in this nation.
My God this is someone who gets it!!!!! Not everyone is created equally, but everyone can do to the best of their ability. If you work hard you should do better than just get by. I don't care what you work at - as long as it's doing something productive or helpful.
There simply are no longer enough jobs in this country to keep everyone employed without some major changes. When you have a large percentage of a population un or under employed they get restless, scared and angry. When people get angry they lash out. They blindly follow charismatic leaders that tell them if they just do as they say things will get better. They are led to do unspeakable things. This was how Hitler came to power. Read your history.
A&P's only problem was when the german company bought them and then raided their pension fund for more than double what they payed for the company. So now the company is left with the obligations but no funds. Race to the bottom and Americans is so far ahead noone will ever catch us. Rich get Richer and poor get poorer until the revolution or depression forces change the only question is which it will be.
Ahh yes the good old corporate raiders. Buy a company for pennies on the dollar then deflate their pension program. That made millionaires out of ruthless lawyers and scumbags while stealing the honestly earned pensions of many. Pension looting has happened in both private and public enterprises. Seems the bigger the piece of crap you are the less it bothers you to steal from another.
It appears to have been one of the primary economic activities of the last 20 years. Meanwhile a bemused and confused public is still wondering what is happening to our job market and our nation's credit rating.
Corporate raiders are going to end their days stuck on pikes outside the bastions of our former cities. I am starting to wonder if this can end well at all, and worry that it won't.
Good!!! We have a Food Emporium in our building and, since they are the only grocery store in the neighborhood, they gouge the hell out of us. How does $7.99 for a gallon of ice cream sound?
Not bad....we pay 5.99 for a half gallon.
I refuse to pay more than $3.00/gal for ice cream. Hence, I don't buy it often and lost some weight. It's called boycotting. Amazing how it works.
My late father worked 35 years for the A&P. He gave his life for that company. They were the biggest bunch of ruthless crooks. GOOD RIDDANCE.
A & P? Wow! I can remember A & P from way back, like about 1952. And, the store had been there for many years previous. It was the first super market in town. Location was not all that great. But, it had probably done well years previous but the town was reaching its finest days - probably peaked in about 1955. The working class had moved to the other side of the river. A store, HY-VEE (out of Chariton, Iowa) opened one of their first stores in town and A & P went bye-bye.
I worked for a very wise man that told me "If you do it wrong enough long enough you will go broke". I hate it but just like Wal Mart has run a lot of other businesses out A&P could not compete with the perceived lower prices at Wally world, Sams and Cosco. Information is everywhere now and either you get competitive or you get run over. The days of customer loyalty are fading fast. you are only as good as your last great deal.
I agree with you. Have you tried to find a local butcher or baker lately? The small family business has all but disappeared in the face of this onslaught by huge chain stores. Quite sad really.
I like that term, "perceived" lower prices. IF you pay close attention to Wally World, they draw you in with a great price on a piece of crap and get you to buy some other brand of the same product at a much higher profit for them.
Watch the prices closely. You will see you are getting raked over the coals. Don't just assume that because you are buying something at Wally World that you are getting the best deal.
Nobody "get you to buy some other brand of the same product at a much higher profit". You make it sound as if you don't have a choice. Here's a tip, if you don't like the product they're offering at the price they are asking -- don't buy it.
........Another idiot comment from a liberal democrat regarding those dastardly rich people!!! Does Terry Gould realize that Ron Buerkle (one of Bill Clinton's X%@hole buddies) is also one of those dastardly rich guys. Ron was responsible for heaping billions of debt on A&P which eventually led to its bankruptcy!!