NY Industry News Briefs: 4/6-4/7

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Forbes observes while Walmart and Target are changing to smaller format stores for more 'urban appeal', Aldi has the upper hand, as demonstrated in Queens.  Forbes.com.

Progressive Grocer was at the grand opening of Food Town in Williamsburg.

Stop & Shop celebrated their 21st anniversary.

A&P is suing Stop & Shop for allegedly  hiring a former executive, Rocky Vitale.

In D.C., Walmart protesters disrupted a City Council session.

Speaking of Walmart, it was announced recently they're the least loved department store on Social Media.

In San Diego, where Walmart is also spending millions of dollars to gain support to open a store, a bill passed requiring new "superstores" (90,000 sqft or more) to conduct economic impact analysis studies, part of the permit process.  Read more @ Sign on San Diego.

The UFCW rallied for justice for Fresh and Easy workers in California.

BJ's CEO Laura Sen made $4M this year.

From New Jersey: A&P Barnegat scheduled to close this month, the company is mum on workers.  Real estate owners say another tenant, possibly a supermarket may fill the vacant space.

In Wisconsin, voters are coming out against Gov. Scott Walker's candidates. 


The City canned plans to pave the Coney Island boardwalk with cement.

Tuesday Morning One Liners

Baltimore's City Council approved a Walmart project, protesters failed to convince a single lawmaker to vote against the project, asking Walmart to agree to pay workers a living wage of $10.59 per hour instead of a $7.25 minimum wage.

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (NYSE:GAP) slid 7% to $3.36 on over 375K shares. SO far this year, the stock is down over 72%. It has a 52-week range of $2.50-$3.34. It has a beta of 2.20.

Price Chopper CEO fights union efforts | The Business Review: Neil Golub, president and CEO, sent a letter to about 24,000 employees at 128 stores in the Northeast telling them joining a union is not in their best interest and that signing union authorization cards would forfeit some of their rights.  

 

New York City announced the first ever Small Business Saturday, in an effort to bolster sales at local stores.

Tuesday Morning One Liners:

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Target's plans for N.Y. domination continued when they announced they will open another supermarket within their store in a King Kullen shopping center on October 17th.

Chicago's City Council is expected to vote on their third Wal-Mart...Alderman Moore is saying not so fast though, "Before we rush in and suddenly give Wal-Mart blank checks to invade our city, lets see if they live up to their agreement in the Pullman neighborhood..."

After 15 months of negotiations, a new agreement between Thunder Bay's Real Canadian Superstore and the UFCW was ratified last night.  Workers have been without a contract since March of 2009.

Two of the Nation's largest unions, UNITE-HERE and SEIU have ended their long dispute: [Daily News]  [Crain's] [New York Times]

Target, spending more money on political candidates...

Thursday News Before Noon: Baltimore Supports Living Wage, Target Set to Open in Harlem Sunday...

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East Harlem gets Big Boxes; Target set to Open Sunday:
After years of flirting with Manhattan, the bull's-eye has landed in East Harlem. Target's first store on the New York island officially opens Sunday — with merchandise tailored to the neighborhood, including Spanish-language greeting cards, multicultural dolls, religious candles and renowned Southern food produced locally. It's a key step in the discounter's push into urban markets to fuel its growth. Read More at the Daily News & NPR also covered the story.

Poll: Baltimore Supports Living Wage:
One day before a City Council subcommittee will meet to consider living-wage legislation governing large employers, a public opinion and strategy firm called Lake Research Partners has released a poll indicating that Baltimoreans support such legislation.

Supermarket News profiles the First Lady, Michelle Obama, noting her success and drive in Food Policy and expansion of healthy foods across the country.

Young Workers in New Jersey, Across Country, Struggling to Find Work:
Belleville’s Pathmark Supermarket, on Belmont Avenue, reported 40 percent of its spring/summer applicants being adults, versus their average 20 percent adult-applicant rate, before the recession. "Because of layoffs, people are willing to take anything nowadays," said Front-End Manager Kareemah Terr

A judge has thrown out the results of the controversial union vote at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Supplier:
Last July, Employees at 2 Sisters Food Group last July voted against representation by the United Food and Commercial Workers union by a count of 87-66. The supplier, based in Riverside, Calif., has subsequently been acquired by Fresh & Easy..  The judge found the company guilty of firing a "pro-union" employee and said the company must offer to reinstate Trespalacios to her former job and provide for lost wages and benefits. The union may choose to call for another union vote.  Read more at SN.

More @ The Press Enterprise

BJ's Wholesale Club Hits a New High.

California Retailers Victorious
In what attorneys called a “huge win for retailers in the Golden State,” a California Court of Appeal ruling has preserved the right of retailers to restrict union picketing on their properties.

Shaw's Workers: Back to Work...

Bottom Dollar Food set to open and expand throughout Philadelphia Area.

Wegmans is also opening a new superstore in the Philly Suburbs.

Fresh Fanatic opens, City Council pushes for mandatory sick days

Dunkin' Donuts operates 60 stores in the Bronx. Image via Wikipedia

Workers at Scott's vote in the UFCW Local 700.

Clinton Hill [Brooklyn] finally gets a supermarket, the two owners of 'Fresh Fanatic' are hoping the store becomes a destination stop for shoppers looking for superb organics. But they also want to prove that "Organic doesn't mean expensive".

City Council pushes for mandatory sick days: Businesses with more than 10 employees would have to offer nine paid sick days per year; smaller firms, five paid days. Fines of $1,000 floated

A new study looks at who has the most chain stores in the Bronx, Dunkin Donuts with 60 stores.

President Obama calls health reform a "Moral Obligation"

A flea market in Brooklyn was named #1 in the United States.

More on Seattle voting down plastic bag tax.

Sam's Club offers fair trade coffee.

70% of retailers are optimistic for 2010.

And CNN looks at 10 people who got rich during the Depression, Mike Cullen [King Kullen] one of them.

Monday News...

The NY Times covers the Chicago Factory sit-in.

More than 70 Mexican and Jamaican agriculture workers at multi-million dollar Ontario mushroom farm are fired, evicted and face defacto deportation [UFCW Press Release]

The Toronto Star has a more detailed story.

RWDSU President Stuart Applebaum has issued a statement.

A&P has released a "Winter preparation guide"

The Hudson Reporter offers a solution to the lack of Supermarkets, in NJ at least.

A man was kidnapped, stabbed at a Wal-Mart in San Diego.

An Immigration raid and legal action have left a northeast Iowa kosher slaughterhouse reeling, but they're not the reason the plant has struggled to remain open. Instead, a company that once was the nation's largest provider of kosher meat has crumbled largely due to a simple problem: an inability to hire enough workers.

Whole Foods has hired top lobbyists and lawyers to plead their FTC case in DC.

Whole Foods was mentioned in a WSJ article regarding 'Job Perks worth getting'

Politics

Adolfo Carrion Jr. revealed in New Haven Friday night that he’s being nominated for a top post in the incoming Obama administraiton.

Mayor Bloomberg will attend Vito Fossella's farewell bash.

The NYC City Council announces millions in cuts.

Riverhead Wal-Mart barred, Another Wal-Mart supplier accused of sweatshop conditions & Friday Morning One Liners...

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Newsday covers the barred opening of the Riverhead Wal-Mart.

Another Wal-Mart supplier has been accused of sweatshop conditions, employees were forced into 19 hour work days while being paid sometimes less than $20.00 a month.

Brooklyn Borough President and Atlantic Yards supporter Marty Markowitz has received between $680,000 and $1.075 million from Atlantic Yards-affiliated companies since 2003, via donations to non-profit companies he created

The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have reached a settlement over alleged violations of the Clear Air Act, which prohibits the sale or distribution of nonessential products containing ozone-depleting substances.

In a letter to Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber, City Council member John Liu spoke out against the Willets Point redevelopment plan

Supermarket stocks suffered a tumble along with the broader market Thursday as investors continued to sell.

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Two owners of an Associated Supermarket in Brooklyn were arrested this week and charged with filing false documents with the state, defrauding employees and paying illegal wages.

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Wal-Mart Stores wants to merge the ideas of price and sustainability in its message to consumers, the executive vice president of the company's grocery division said at a conference here yesterday.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday said it has charged two former top executives at drug store chain Duane Reade with accounting fraud, alleging that they executed false-payment schemes that inflated the company's profits.

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Politics

Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, a McCain campaign co-chairman, edged up to an explicitly racial attack on Barack Obama on Thursday, describing the Illinois Senator as a "guy of the street" before raising his youthful drug use