Kroger Supermarkets lays off employees after local ordinance on hazard pay passed in Los Angeles

[bullwinkle428]

Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the US which makes hundred of millions of dollars in profits, is shutting down grocery stores and laying off scores of employees in response to local hazard pay rules for essential workers even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.

Maria Hernandez has worked at Ralphs grocery stores for 25 years before she recently found out her store would be shutting down. She’s worked through the pandemic and caught the coronavirus in May 2020. She still experiences lingering, long-term effects from it, and has dealt with panic attacks and anxiety from the stress and pressures placed on essential workers.

In response to a local ordinance passed by the Los Angeles city council on 3 March to grant frontline workers at large employers a $5-an-hour hazard pay increase for 120 days, Kroger announced plans to shut down three grocery stores in the city, eliminating more than 250 jobs.

Kroger’s CEO, Rodney McMullen, received more than $21m in total compensation in 2019, a 789 to 1 ratio compared to the median wage for Kroger employees.

When the pandemic began, Kroger enacted a $2-an-hour hazard pay along with several other large retailers and grocery chains, but ended it in May 2020 after buying nationwide television ads thanking their essential employees.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/26/krogers-us-supermarket-chain-stores-closed-layoffs

[Iliyah]

1. It's their lost ...

another grocery chain will compensate. Jobs will be restored.

Bye.

[femmedem]

2. They just made a case for government-run grocery stores in order to prevent food deserts.

Neighborhoods need grocery stores, and if the free market doesn't provide them then the municipality should.
It's not unheard of: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11/22/baldwin-florida-food-desert-city-owned-grocery-store/

[bigtree]

3. Kroger has the money

...they're revealing themselves as a horrible company.

[marble falls]

4. I remember as a kid "Krogering" with my grandfather and dad, (men did the grocery shopping ...

... in our family). This would keep me out of Kroger's if we had one out here - that and the fact we have HEB.

[Lonestarblue]

12. I shop at HEB, too, but I recently learned that its owner is a big Republican donor.

Here’s a Tribune article describing just one of the donations to Abbott. https://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/16/deep-pocked-donors-fuel-abbotts-massive-haul/

I’ll have to think about whether I want to continue supporting a store that supports Republicans. I don’t like Randalls at all, so it’s a tough choice here.

[Cozmo]

13. What's there to think about? We all gotta stand tall against these corporate greed machines

And we gotta tell them that we are doing it and why, If enough people react with their conscience we can hit Corporate America where they live, their pockets.

[marble falls]

23. Maybe before we start boycotting because of something one hears from someone one ...

... does not know, who heard it from someone else one does not know, one might do a little investigation.

After all, we aren't a bunch of Qanons here.

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/heb-grocery/summary?id=D000042670

[Cozmo]

27. That's right, just vacillate! It's so easy.

What data are you looking for that you haven't received? I'd love to clue you in if your'e willing.

[KPN]

20. We all may need to think long and hard on that. One of the big problems we face is corporations

have become accustomed to the huge profits and executive salaries that have grown consistently since the Reagan years. It is now the norm for them; an expectation. Their impulse will naturally be to take measures that best conserve those profit and stock price levels.

It's a short term view on their part in response to an imbalanced and societally unhealthy — actually threatening — construct that developed over a long term. The vast majority of today’s corporate decision-makers were not working before the Reagan years and know no other construct. In their minds, government policy in support of worker’s economic well being, stability or “economic fairness” is radical socialistic intervention and justifies radical response on their part.

It’s going to take a lot to break that down. A lot of time for them to change.

[Cozmo]

30. You gotta start somewhere. No sense being a worry wart be active!

[KPN]

31. Smile. You are right about that 110%. Good

vibe.

[marble falls]

22. Who'd you hear that from??? The biggest contribution HEB made was to JOE BIDEN!!!!!

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/heb-grocery/summary?id=D000042670

[Lonestarblue]

26. I posted a link to a Texas Tribune article.

Here’s another site with information. “In the 2016 cycle Mr. Butt gave $500,000 to Governor Greg Abbott.”

https://www.transparencyusa.org/article/closer-look-charles-butt

Half a million bucks is a lot of support for a terrible governor. A chart in the following links shows that he has given some money to Democrats but by far his donations go to Republicans. Interestingly, this article mentions his resistance to cuts in the food stamp program and says that HEB earns nearly $3 billion dollars in food stamp reimbursements from the federal government, yet he supports the party that would eliminate food stamps in a heartbeat if they could.

[2naSalit]

5. Over in the next county there's a Kroger...

It's newish, never been in it, now I'm sure not to ever go shopping there.

[MichMan]

6. Ordinance requiring hazard pay should have made it illegal to close stores or any layoffs

[gab13by13]

7. How much money did Kroger get,

from Trump's 2 trillion dollar giveaway?

[3825-87867]

8. Take away any local or state tax breaks these chains get.

They get a lot of public money from tax breaks, tax abatements and more. They want to reap the benefits of being allowed to open in a locale, then make them pay if the stiff the residents. It's our money.

[McKim]

9. I Shop Elsewhere Now

A friend got a part time job at my local K Market and I learned how they don't treat employees well. I stopped shopping there.

[greatlaurel]

10. In two weeks we can start going to Costco in person. a 2 1/2 hr round trip, no more Kroger

Our small town has a Kroger and a Walmart. We make an effort never to use Walmart and now that Kroger is determined to destroy their employees lives in LA, we will no longer be shopping at Kroger. Giant Eagle has a better pharmacy, too, which is a half an hour away.

Kroger dominates the politics in Ohio, but they cannot force me to spend my money there.

[Cozmo]

14. You Go, I'm with you. No more Kroger for me!

[Celerity]

11. Operating Profit of $2.8 billion; Adjusted FIFO Operating Profit of $4.1 billion in 2020

[EX500rider]

24. Is that gross or net and on what volume total sales? nt

[Celerity]

25. Kroger Delivers Strong Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2020 Results

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kroger-delivers-strong-fourth-quarter-and-fiscal-year-2020-results-301240596.html

[niyad]

15. I just called Kroger Customer Svc. to express my unhappiness and disgust. I pointed out the ceo's

salary and their profits. And the impact, not just on the employees, but the customers for those three stores.

[wnylib]

17. Sounds like it's time for a boycott

for places that have a Kroger store. None in my area.

[AllaN01Bear]

18. its time to re isntate the taxes on these people . with that amout of insane money

to the workers is nonsense.

[JohnnyRingo]

19. Is that smart business?

In the face of slightly increased (and temporary) costs, to shut down revenue streams seems like something shareholders would not be pleased about. But what do I know, maybe the board of directors gave the CEO a standing ovation for shrinking the company.

"We're all in this together, until we have to pay our heroes more".

[JonAndKatePlusABird]

28. Kroger includes a whole bunch of other stores

They operate under different names but they are all basically Kroger supermarkets.

https://www.thekrogerco.com/about-kroger/our-business/grocery-retail/

[uncle ray]

29. it's not like grocery workers are being shot or anything.