Throwdown on Aisle 2
There's an interesting story brewing here in Portland. The workers at a dozen New Seasons Markets in the area are going on a one-day strike for higher wages. The work stoppage will be on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. And the union is urging shoppers to boycott NS stores throughout the holiday shopping season.
This could throw a monkey wrench in the holiday menu planning for the area's many soccer moms and well-groomed grandmas. They love New Seasons for the fancy foodstuffs, despite the ridiculously sky-high prices. But they also believe in equity, justice, labor unions, Rachel Maddow, and all that good progressive stuff.
So do they cross the picket line for the better kale, or drive the Prius down the street to Whole Foods and give their money to Jeff Bezos? It's a tough call.
I'm on the fence, too. I can't decide who at New Seasons annoy me more, the Korean corporate overlords who own the place, raking in the profits from gouging the naive, or the precious hipsters who begrudgingly wait on the customers while awaiting with eager anticipation the collapse of capitalism.
I'd hate to miss out on any bargains. Yesterday I saw that candy bars are on sale. Only $4! For a limited time only.
When they first opened,I was excited. I liked the fresh vegetables. It became my main grocery store. Something gradually changed. Haven’t been in their stores for a long time.
ReplyDeleteIt was a local operation for quite a while. But that ended. And as I recall, they cut back on their own baking, relying more on contractors.
DeleteNothing’s as good as it used to be…not even butter!
ReplyDeleteIF one ordered one of the 21 different kinds of turkeys from NS for a Wed pickup…it may take a while better get in line today.
People’s Food Co-Op and Natural Grocers are two better places, especially conscience-wise, for starters. There are others around, too, in various parts of town.
ReplyDeleteA while back, it seemed like their prices were more reasonable. Now, comparable to Whole Paycheck. Growing up in Idaho, I'm fond of shopping at Winco, which, at least in theory, is worker owned.
ReplyDeleteI don't ever remember NS prices being reasonable. Whole is actually cheaper for many things these days. And you can pay with your palm print! :)
DeleteWinco’s “worker owned” status is as an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan). After a specified number of hours with the company, a “deposit” of stock equal to 20% of an employee’s annual pay goes into the retirement account. Seems generous, but the stock is not publicly traded, and it’s the only option in the retirement account. Seems to be putting all your eggs into one basket to me.
DeleteJack, don't you have to have a Prime account to get those cheaper prices? And as I've said before, I have no interest in adding to Bezos Boi's bank account.
DeleteWay, way back when, our little word processing and graphics business did a bunch of work for New Season's co-founder Stan Amy when his outlet was Natures. Wonderful people, great scene and vibe. New Seasons started out well, sort of an upscale Natures - we loved the big store in Tualatin - but eventually corporate money won out and the rest of us are worse off for it.
ReplyDeleteA different group of Korean corporate overlords keep prices low at H-Mart with the best fresh veggie prices.
ReplyDeleteNew Seasons is nothing like it was back in the day when Stan Amy was running it. It’s really sad…
ReplyDeleteYou can only be "socially conscience" and "all natural" when your bank account isn't bouncing. Those days are few and far between now with food prices up over 30% in many cases, thanks to endless printing of fake money to keep the fake economy going.
ReplyDeleteI was going to pop in one of the stores for a few things I needed, but I turned around when I saw the picket line.
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