Monday Afternoon News...

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Wal-Mart's Baltimore Chop

Neighborhood Retail Alliance looks at yesterday's NY Daily News, which made the case why Wal-Mart would be good for NYC...

Residential Development on Greenpoint Ave (46th Street) [Key Food]

The redevelopment of the Key Food property, located on 46th Street between Queens Blvd. and Greenpoint Ave., will not only include the expansion of the existing supermarket but four stories of apartments and office space above.

St. Albans Co-op Store joins Keep Local Farms:

The co-op will donate 20 cents of every gallon of milk sold to the program.

Whole Foods to recycle wine corks

In partnership with Cork ReHarvest, Whole Foods Market will set up designated drop boxes for recycling wine corks in its stores.

Trader Joe's to Open First Nebraska Location

On 25th anniversary of Hormel strike, participants to recall milestone struggle

On Tuesday, May 4, participants will provide perspective on the Hormel strike in a program organized as part of the “Untold Stories” labor history series.

Dunkirk Quality Markets to close in June:

Tops Friendly Markets, a leading full-service grocery retailer in Western New York, Central New York, including Rochester, and Northwestern Pennsylvania, announced today that as part of its review process of the acquisition of a majority of Penn Traffic's assets, the Quality Markets store at the D&F Plaza in Dunkirk will close in early June.


Figuring Out Food Labels:
Some food labels are designed to inform consumers. Others are meant to confuse and seduce. Here's a guide to deciphering the most common packaged-food labeling systems used in the U.S. and in other countries, as well as proposed changes to the familiar Nutrition Facts panel.

Friday Morning One-Liners: Wal-Mart OK's Meeting with Chicago's Labor

Wal-Mart has OK'd a meeting to sit down with labor (UFCW, Chicago Federation of Labor)  to push for more Chicago expansion.[Chicago Sun-Times] 

Ramirez noted that Wal-Mart has been bombarding the airwaves with commercials in recent days boasting about how well its employees are treated.
"If they do all this great stuff, sit down and put it in writing. You haven't exactly lived up to the letter of the law in other places," Ramirez said.
"They've got the largest class-action lawsuit in American history for systematically paying women less than they pay men for doing the exact same thing. The [alarm] bells should be going off at City Hall saying, 'We don't want to bring in predatory employers.' I don't hear a commercial saying that."

New York
Crain's Poll: "Would you Shop at a NYC Walmart?" Check out what other New Yorkers are saying.

WSJ Blog: NYC Wal-Mart, Speaker Quinn and Mayor Bloomberg Disagree.

CNN: Wal-Mart's Bad PR Comes at a Bad Time...

King Kullen donates $100,000 of Groceries to Island Harvest (Long Island).

UFCW President Joe Hansen released a statement denouncing Arizona’s controversial new immigration law: "Arizona's new immigration law is unworkable, unconstitutional and it undermines our nation's rich immigrant history and heritage. It is a recipe for racial profiling and a marked retreat from the values and ideals that have made America strong."

Kroger: Wal-Mart's  aggressive new price campaign has it behaving more like a promotional supermarket and less like an everyday discounter, at least according to the estimation of one competitor. [Supermarket News]

Kelly Ripa has been recruited as the spokesperson for A&P's "Price Project", the company's new pricing program.

Greenpeace has released their annual Supermarket Seafood Sustainability chart [pdf], Target and Wegmans came in at 1 and 2, while A&P rated at 7... Supermarket News has more.

UFCW Local 1: Cooperstown Great American Gobbled Up by Golub
Neil Golub is at it again.  He may be destroying more good jobs, this time in Cooperstown NY.  The Golub Corporation has purchased the Great American store in Cooperstown NY, the birth of baseball.  This may be a strike out for Great American employees.  Will Neil Golub offer the 50 employees at Great American a position with his store after he takes over in three weeks?  If history repeats itself the answer is, no....

Pat Purcell, Assistant to the President, UFCW Local 1500, joined the Neil Cavuto Show to discuss Wal-Mart in NYC, Wednesday.  Check out the video.

Thousands of workers and union members angry over lost jobs and the taxpayer-funded bailout of banks marched on Wall Street Thursday. [Crain's NY]

Wednesday Morning One-Liners: Wal-Mart's Discrimination Suit, Brooklyn Plans

Wal-Mart & Brooklyn

NY1: A Wal-Mart Battle Grows in Brooklyn
With speculation mounting that Wal-Mart may try and open a store in Brooklyn, opponents of the big box retailer are already fighting back. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report. (video)

Supermarket News: ShopRite, Wal-Mart Said to Eye Brooklyn...
Both this week were said to be separately preparing to build new store sites in Brooklyn, though neither retailer had made an official announcement.

Brooklyn Eagle: Wal-Mart Coming to East NY?
“There’s no argument that Walmart will shut down small businesses,” said Pat Purcell, assistant to the President of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union Local 1500. It has been seen many times over that the low wages and vast array of products Walmart offers make this outcome inevitable. “Small businesses are killed,” he said.

WSJ: Wal-Mart a Target, Even Just Shopping

More @ WPIX11,

Wal-Mart Gender Suit
SN Wal-Mart Mulling Supreme Appeal
A U.S. appeals court here has ruled against Wal-Mart Stores in a lawsuit filed by former female employees who claim the retailer discriminated against women in awarding pay and promotions, but Wal-Mart said it is considering appealing the case to the Supreme Court.

NY Times: Steven Greenhouse, Wal-Mart Gender Case Divides Court
In a closely watched case, a sharply divided federal appeals court on Monday ruled 6-5 that a sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart could proceed as a class action for more than a million women. The suit is the biggest employment discrimination case in the nation’s history.

Forbes: Wal-Mart faces largest sex-discrimination suit in U.S. History.


Is this the employer we want in our city?

Shaw's gets support
Progressive Grocer: Unionized employees at Acme Markets in Philadelphia and New Jersey, and Shoppers Food & Drug in Maryland and Virginia are throwing their support behind the 300 workers at the Shaw’s warehouse in Methuen, Mass., who have been on strike since early March.

More @ Supermarket News

Head's up Connecticut, the Food Bazaar is expanding to CT
The New York-based chain with 16 stores specializing in serving inner-city customers, is slated to host a grand opening of its first Connecticut location here next Thursday, May 6.

LoHud: ShopRite Gets Permit to Build a City Center in White Plains
Following several months of review, the city handed a building permit to ShopRite, paving the way for the largest downtown supermarket to open at the City Center mall this fall.

Brooklyn Navy Yard
Admiral's Row to Mowed Down for ShopRite

NY Post: Brooklyn Navy Yard breaking walls to open new ShopRite



NY Times: In Wake of Immigration Law, Calls for an Economic Boycott of Arizona
A spreading call for an economic boycott of Arizona after its adoption of a tough immigration law that opponents consider racially discriminatory worried business leaders on Monday and angered the governor. 

Monday Morning One-Liners: Wal-Mart's NYC Battle Continues...

"They'll have the battle of their lives. Walmart exploits workers ... and we want no part of that."

- Councilman Charles Barron, in today's Daily News. (via WFP)

Huffington Post, Al Norman: Wal-Mart Net Sales Worst Ever, But Urban Warfare Continues in Chicago and New York City

It's been a very disappointing sales year at Wal-Mart. The giant retailer just announced its worst net sales increase in history---just a 1% increase over 2009 levels. Despite these tepid numbers---or perhaps because of them---Wal-Mart's drive to expand in urban markets like Chicago and New York City are intensifying...

This week Crain's New York Business reports that Wal-Mart still thinks New York City is worth the effort. Wal-Mart is reportedly the surreptitious tenant in a massive Brooklyn project known as the Gateway II. The landowner, Related Cos., says no leases have been signed---but often in such cases Wal-Mart orders the developer not to disclose the retailer's interest. Related has already survived the toughest part of the process: Gateway II passed through the city's land-use process last summer. By hiding off-site, Wal-Mart can now reveal its interest, unbruised by the permitting process.


Crain's: Walmart Targets NY Sites, Hopes to Bypass Unions as it Targets BKLYN's Gateway
The 630,000-square-foot Gateway II shopping center off Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn is among the sites Walmart is eyeing in a renewed push to build its first New York City store, sources familiar with the situation say.

Huffington Post: Wal-Mart Scouts Brooklyn &  NY Locations

NY Daily News: Wal-Mart Eyes Brooklyn


SN: A&P said on Friday, as part of its new Lower Price Project, it would lower prices on over 400 generic prescription drugs to just $3.99, for up to a 30-day supply at A&P, SuperFresh, Waldbaum’s and Pathmark stores.

UFCW Local 135 is helping the homeless. “On a daily basis, our members’ jobs involve getting fresh and nourishing food to customers in supermarkets and elsewhere,” said Mickey Kasparian, president of UFCW Local 135 and president of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, in a statement. “But as good citizens it’s also our responsibility to get food to those who need it most and can’t afford it.”

Shaw's
Local 791 Urges SuperValu to Return to the Table
The Local has urged its members to call Craig Herkert, the chief executive officer of Supervalu, Friday to demand a resolution. 

Friday News at Noon: Shaw's Workers Need Your Support

From UFCW: Shaw's Workers Need Your Support!   Call Supervalu CEO Craig Herkert today at (952) 828-4000 - tell him that the 300 workers Supervalu’s subsidiary Shaw’s forced out on strike in Methuen, Mass. almost two months ago deserve to be treated fairly and that Supervalu should sit down at the bargaining table for a quick and fair resolution.

Stop and Shop gets key approvals for move to Hyde Park: [Poughkeepsie Journal]
Plans for Stop & Stop to move from its current store at Saint Andrews Road and Route 9 to the Hyde Park Mall can now begin in earnest...What will happen to the current Stop & Shop building is unclear....

Pro's Ranch Cuts 300 Workers in Immigration Probe: [Supermarket News]
The supermarket has released more than 300 employees at its six Phoenix-area stores — 20% of its workforce there — because they were found to be working without proper work authorization documentation.
The audits are part of a national process that began nationally last July and that have been conducted at more than 1,600 businesses across the U.S....

Related:

Reason.com: How Immigration Crackdowns Backfire.

RWDSU/UFCW Local 220 Authorizes Strike: [Press Release]

"We want to reach an agreement with Mott's," said RWDSU Representative Ron Duncan. "We stand ready to bargain but the company has taken this position that we should just shut up and accept whatever they are offering. It's really disgraceful that they want to take away from their employees at a time when the company is doing well." 
Over 300 members of Local 220 voted to authorize a strike if no agreement can be reached with Mott's for workers at the company's Williamson, NY facility. The vote, which was 250-5, gives authorization for the union to call a strike if the company continues to engage in unfair labor practices and refuses to bargain.





Elsewhere

Pepsi has rolled out Recycling Kiosks titled, "Dream Machine".

U.S. Organic Product Sales Reach $26.6B in 2009.

Racked looks inside the highly anticipated Chelsea Trader Joe's.

Victory for Canadian Farmworkers: Quebec's labour relations commission has cut out language in the province's labour code that had blocked seasonal farm workers from unionizing.

Downtown Express: Battery Park City may get a new Greenmarket...