Tuesday Morning One Liners....

Image via Wikipedia

Wegmans Food Markets here is introducing a new store logo that harks back to its logo of the 1930s and 1940s.
Read more of this story 

More than 1,100 workers at Kroger stores in central Indiana voted to approve a new contract with the Cincinnati-based retailer, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700 here said Monday.
Read more of this story 

Wal-Mart to Close 20 Japan Units, Cut Jobs
The global giant's Japan unit may be struggling, but it said plans are still on for expansion after this reduction

Online grocer FreshDirect has introduced a campaign to spotlight employees whose dedication to community service has made them "FreshDirect Heroes." The campaign runs through November and features four associates who will appear local advertising in the New York City area, on the FreshDirect Web site, and on the company jumbotron outside its plant in Long Island City, N.Y. 

More than 98 percent of United Food and Commercial Workers Union members at Indianapolis-area Kroger stores have voted to ratify a new, four-year contract.

Gov. David Paterson has stepped into the Senate fight on behalf of the Senate Democrats. Paterson endorsed Democratic NYC Councilman Jim Gennaro, who is challenging 18-term Republican Sen. Frank Padavan in Queens.

The Employee Free Choice Act

Image via Wikipedia

For decades workers attempting to unionize have played on an uneven playing field.  The Employee Free Choice Act will level this playing field.  

The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800, S. 1041), supported by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, would enable working people to bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions by restoring workers’ freedom to choose for themselves whether to join a union. It would:

• Establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.
• Provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes (PDF).
• Allow employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.

The Employee Free Choice Act can help reclaim the American Dream by restoring workers' freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life. Our goal is to gather signatures in support of this bill-1 million voices calling for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. But 1 million people is a lot of people. We won't reach our goal without your help and the help of your friends and family.

Please support this bill and help us reach our goal of 1 million signatures—sign the petition today by following this link.

Monday Morning One Liners...

Image via Wikipedia

NY1 has a story/video up on the new Trader Joe's in Brooklyn.

The New York Times writes on Jefferson Market, and the struggles of going through 2 economic crashes.

Brooklyn Paper says "the Boro is salivating" over the new Trader Joes.

Fresh & Easy Up Ante with another 3 in Vegas 

The Tesco-owned grocer said it will open six additional stores in Clark County next month.

Ex-Pathmark Execs Turn Up at Rite Aid
John Standley returns to the drug store operator as president and c.o.o., while Frank Vitrano comes aboard as c.f.o. and chief administrative officer.

Eli Zabar, who owns the decade-old two-story haunt known for its $12 chocolate bars, $30 imported nuts and $95 hams, told a CBS affiliate station in New York that he wanted to be transparent to his customers about the need to raise prices as his energy bills soar. So he's affixed tasteful placards in his store that read "ATTN CUSTOMERS: An energy surcharge of 1.8% will be added to every purchase."

Wal-Mart is aiming at curbing most of their plastic bag use.

After rejecting a new two-year labor agreement for MGP Ingredients, Inc, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local #74D elected late Friday to enact a work stoppage at the company's Atchison, Kan., plant effective at 8 a.m. Saturday. The local is made up of 148 members.

The "Grow Monroe" program was launched last week upstate, and is modeled after King Kullen's buy local produce program in Long Island.

More than 3,500 home care workers averted a strike this week when their union reached a contract agreement with one agency and came to a tentative understanding on a contract with another. 1199 SEIU negotiators signed a 14-month deal with Prestige Care Inc. and reached a tentative agreement on contract terms with Bestcare Inc. Both deals would provide raises and, for the first time, health insurance.

Politics

Brian Foley was joined by over 50 members of four local unions Saturday, including Local 1500 for door-to-door canvassing in Brookhaven. The campaign has received a huge push from organized labor over the last week thanks to seven endorsements of Foley by local unions.

NYT writes on the problems at the Bronx Democratic Party, where last night Assemblyman Jose Rivera was voted out as chairman.

Caroyln McCarthy is facing her biggest challenge this election.

Steven Greenhouse writes the difficulties union members have canvassing for Obama.

Here's  Bill Rafferty on Sarah Palin,

The bailout bill will go to the House today, where it faces some opposition from Republicans.

BJ's in Red Hook, Trader Joe's in Brooklyn Opens today, Eli Zabar and the energy tax...Friday Morning One liners...

Image via Wikipedia

Two former Pathmark Executives were hired by Rite Aid:  Rite Aid Corp., the third-biggest U.S. drugstore chain, hired new operating and finance chiefs after reporting its fifth straight unprofitable quarter and widened its projected loss for the year.

Here's more in depth analysis via MarketWatch.

Via Paul Santarpia: Another Pathmark is closing, Philly...

The BJ’s Wholesale Club destined for the Red Hook waterfront might be part of a six-level shopping plaza with several other stores and even some residential units, The Brooklyn Paper has learned.

Local 400 has a new contract with Farmland Foods.

The Daily News covers Trader Joe's grand opening today.

Supermarket News covered it also....Trader Joe’s this week will open doors to new locations in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Richmond, Va.; and Williamsburg, Va., the company said.
Read more of this story

 

The Eli Zabar 'energy' tax is getting a lot of heat from press.

Here's more from NYT

One blogger says its a 'how to go out of business recipe' 

And the Supermarket News picked the story up also

Zabar’s, the venerable Upper West Side food store here, has been adding a 1.8% surcharge to purchases in an effort to defray — and call attention to — its increased energy costs, according to a New York Times report this week.
Read more of this story

 

An analysis of blog postings conducted by the research firm J.D. Power & Associates here indicates Whole Foods earns high marks when it comes to the perception of its environmental sustainability while Safeway and Costco have a long way to go.
Read more of this story 

A lockout continues at the Grain Processing Corp. plant in Muscatine despite six hours of talks aimed at reaching an agreement between workers and the company.

The Neighborhood Retail Alliance blogs about the Supermarket crisis.

IGA Global in Chicago said the IGA banner has been unveiled for the first time ever in Mexico on two stores supplied by Unified Grocers, Los Angeles.
Read more of this story

 

Political

The truth of Rudy Giuliani in office is now coming out.  An ex-aid has launched a website.

 Via Observer
 Kornacki says that after the deal was nearly done, John McCain inflamed the resistance of House Republicans and helped created a conflict that justified his campaign's suspension

Peapod expands to N.J., Could a Fairway Market be coming to Bay Ridge?, Eli's adds a new 'energy tax', plus more one liners....

Image via Wikipedia

For the Bay Ridge shoppers who lost a Key Food in June, rumors of a Fairway Market are now circulating.

Shoppers are less than amused about an energy surcharge passed along by a fancy food store in New York City. Eli's, on the upper East Side posted a sign saying: "An energy surcharge of 1.8 percent will be added to every purchase."  Owner Eli Zabar (ZAY'-bahr) concedes that it's "a very arbitrary number" _ but says it's actually low.

The New York Times and residents don't necessarily agree with it.

Supermarket news covered UFCW's NEPAC ceremony.

 

A Sacramento Superior Court judge has rejected an attempt by Ralphs Grocery Co. to restrict informational picketing at a Foods Co store in Sacramento.

A Los Angeles federal grand jury indicted several former Ralphs Grocery Co. employees Friday for conspiring to rehire hundreds of locked-out employees under false names and social security numbers during the Southern California grocery workers strike.

More on this story from the LA Times.

King Kullen was featured on a presentation of  'Going Green Long Island' which will air Saturday, Sept. 27 at 3 p.m., late night Sunday, Sept. 28 at 3 a.m. and Tuesday, Sept. 30 at 1 p.m. on WLIW21. The documentary will also stream in its entirety on www.wliw.org/goinggreenLI.

 

A new smaller Stop & Shop format is anchoring a new plaza in Mass.


They're also is expanding their Gluten Free Foods.

Internet grocer Peapod, LLC and supermarket chain Stop & Shop have opened a new facility to serve New Jersey's Monmouth and Ocean counties, following healthy sales in other parts of the state.

Here's more on the new Peapod in NJ.

Verizon Communications Inc. employees in two unions have ratified a 
three-year contract, giving higher pay and other benefits to about a quarter of the work force.

The Brooklyn Paper has a sneak peak of Trader Joe's in Brooklyn.

One more day until Trader Joe's in Brooklyn.

Article on Feds probing Food Prices, specifically in NYC.

More at AngryMob.

Organizing struggles and Company resistance to go union leads to a union election to take place in a car.

UFCW Strike authorization was approved in Canada for a local store..

Other

A coalition of 10 Northeastern states will take steps this week to check global warming when it conducts the nation's first carbon auction, taking the same approach that curbed lake-killing acid rain.

 New York’s commuter transit system just got a little easier to navigate. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Google Inc. on Tuesday unveiled a new online service to help customers find their way around the region’s web of buses and trains.