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.

Tuesday Morning One Liners...

Image via Wikipedia

Spartan Stores, a grocery supplier to independent grocers and operator of 99 retail stores throughout Michigan, offering GM workers and UAW workers who lost their jobs discounts on gasoline and groceries.

Rite-Aid workers and union supporters will rally in Times Square on Thursday before a shareholders meeting...workers in Lancaster have been struggling over one year to negotiate their first union contract.

A national Ad group has told Wal-Mart Stores yesterday that it should stop running TV ads claiming customers can save $700 a year by shopping its stores. This is not the first time Wal-Mart has been told to stop making claims like these in advertisements.

Wal-Mart has also named a new diversity officer.

Wal-Mart is also having yet another 'sales tax mishap', overcharging customers, this time in Missouri. If you remember this was previously an issue in Connecticut.

Lee Scott, the former chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores, called on attendees at the CIES World Food Business Summit here on Friday to join the Global Social Compliance Program to help ensure that suppliers are adhering to local wage and environmental regulations.

A&P store in Midland Park, N.J. next Saturday morning will have a Jonas Brothers day.

Price Chopper has announced they will analyze their labor costs.

Hyde Park Stop & Shop update: voting waits on traffic light location.

Another study has confirmed, lack of nearby supermarkets takes years off life.

As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, adding a supermarket to a neighborhood could, collectively, mean a gain of up to 15 years of life for those suffering from diabetes; 13 years for those with liver disease; 58 years for people with diet-related cancers; and 112 years for people with cardiovascular disease.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn unveiled an agreement with the Bloomberg administration last Thursday on a trifecta of measures geared toward making it easier for small businesses in the city to launch and prosper.

The city of Philadelphia has rejected a measure that would ban plastic bags.

USA Today: For immigrants, living the dream is getting tougher.

Bruno's Management to receive bonuses, New Yorkers pay a lot for rent, Tuesday One Liners...

Image via Wikipedia

A court ruled yesterday that Bruno's management will receive bonuses...UFCW spokesman said:

"What you see on Wall Street has managed to work its way down South," said Corey Owens, the union spokesman. "These managers are about to get rich for running this company into the ground." If anyone if going to profit from the sale of Bruno's, Owens said, it should first and foremost be workers and communities that have stores.

A local pizzeria and bagel store are hurting now that stores like Circuit City and Linen's and Things have left in Staten Island.

Supermarket News has more on 1262's negotiations.

Tesco is expected to concede that its first U.S. operation, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets, will not be profitable this year when it announces full company results later this week..

Wal-Mart is cutting bottled water to save shelf space.

Hundreds of construction trade union members plan a rally 1 p.m. today at the Capitol to blast state funding for projects — including GlobalFoundries' $4.2 billion computer chip plant — that lack requirements for labor union pay rates, hiring or project agreements.

More than a quarter of New Yorkers are spending their money on rent, the Bronx was the hardest hit where 33.1% of residents use half their monthly income or more on rent.

A new bill introduced today would halt the sale of cigarettes in Supermarkets and Drug Stores.

Makers of Plastic Bags will use 40% of recycled material by 2015.

Ruben Diaz Jr. will be named Bronx Borough president today.

And finally Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie shopped in Stop & Shop this past weekend,

Elliot Spitzer beats Patterson in a new Poll.

New York City Council Passes Plastic Bag Bill

The City Council here voted yesterday 44-2 to require supermarkets and drug stores to collect plastic bags for recycling. The legislation, which reports said was thus far unopposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, applies to stores that use plastic bags and occupy 5,000 or more square feet or have more than five outlets in New York City, according to a statement from the City Council.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn said "You shouldn't walk around and have the city's flower be a plastic bag that's eternally blossoming in a tree. We want to end that time in our city,"

Supermarkets that belong to chains of more than five stores or that have more than 5,000 square feet will now have to:

* Place recycling bins in stores.

* Use plastic bags that are clearly marked as recyclable.

* Accept shoppers' bags from other stores, as well as shrink wrap and dry-cleaning bags.

Some 2,000 stores will be affected, and violators are subject to fines of $300 daily.

Stores would be required to provide collection bins and would have to use plastic bags printed with the words “Please return this bag to a participating store for recycling” or a similar message. They would also have to offer reusable bags for sale to shoppers. The stores will also be required to submit annual reports to the Department of Sanitation on the amount and weight of collected plastic bags.

Is it time for New York Supermarkets to start recycling plastic bags?

The New York Times Blog asks New Yorkers if it's time for supermarkets to recycle plastic bags. Here is an excerpt from the blog.

Paper or plastic? It’s no longer much of a choice in the United States, where plastic bags — introduced in 1977 — make up 90 percent of all grocery bags, according to the Progressive Bag Alliance, which represents plastic bag manufacturers. Now two City Council members, concerned about the number of plastic bags entering the New York City waste stream, say supermarkets should be required to take an active role in recycling them.

City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr. are proposing legislation today that would require grocery stores to collect, transport and recycle the bags. The bill would put New York near the forefront of a movement to curb plastic bag use. The United States goes through an estimated 100 billion plastic bags a year, as Peter Applebome noted in an Our Towns column in September.

What do you think? Check out the rest of the opinion here.