From the Kroger store that I work at, In Garland Texas, There is a lot of options within a 5 mile radius of the store for the grocery dollars.
Not counting the small little convenience stores we have two super Wal-marts, a fiesta foods grocery store, two aldi`s, three Hispanic oriented grocery stores, one Asian meat market, A tom thumb and an Albertsons. Now if you want to ad Big Lots and Dollar General stores then you can add another three stores to the competition.
here in bloomington indiana we have countless options for people to shop. however, most of the options are lower quality, or higher price.
Out of all our competition, we have the best prices except for the Aldi`s Stores. THey are not very big and only handle their brand products. Not very good quality or selection but good prices. Still get a gallon of milk, dozen large eggs and a loaf of whole wheat bread and have change back from a $5 bill.
How much pension plan/stock purchase options do you have, Grumpy1? In five years Kroger will be gone.Wal-Mart or somebody else like them will take over. Not because of the union, but in spite of them. Indianna just added their plate to non mandatory union fees extraction. I've seen it happen before.
Bottom line: We need strong unions for strong jobs exporting strong products. A country without the ability to buy and own their own products/services, or adequately sell them over seas, is doomed to fail.
Oh ****, I grew up in Garland. In Columbia, SC now. Just down the street from us? Wal-mart, Publix, Fresh Market, Piggly Wiggly, Bi-Lo, and Food Lion. Soon to have a Whole Foods (in a former Kroger location, no less).
Walmart right across the street from us, and an Aldi's down the road. Other than that it's mostly smaller stores.
Aldi's really does have the best deals, i've never had a problem with their quality either. The reason why it's so cheap is because they don't hire many employees :X
How much pension plan/stock purchase options do you have, Grumpy1? In five years Kroger will be gone.Wal-Mart or somebody else like them will take over. Not because of the union, but in spite of them. Indianna just added their plate to non mandatory union fees extraction. I've seen it happen before.
Bottom line: We need strong unions for strong jobs exporting strong products. A country without the ability to buy and own their own products/services, or adequately sell them over seas, is doomed to fail.
Unverified I have about a little under $1900 a month when I retire. That will go up $58 a month in June and it will increase by $58 per month per year. They will only pay into it for ( last I was told) 35 years. After that there is contributions to a point. They will take off the lesser amount years and pay into it with the 35 beast years.Best estimate is I will have about $2800 a month in retirement income. I will pay a 10% penalty and my wife ( when I remarry) will then get half that amount for the rest of her life when I die or kroger kills me.
Now people has predicted the death of Kroger ( in the Dallas Fort worth area ) for the last 15 years. Wal mart made a statement once about trying to dominate a total region and placing the competition out of business.They own the #1 market share for this region but Kroger is a strong second and most of the other big boys have left the area or up for sale. Our union and the other local has a good relationship with kroger and does not have as bad relation as some other locals and other areas.We have good leaders and some strong key people that has been on negotiations and given to a lot of privileged in sites of kroger.
-Albertsons - 3 - Aldi - 1 Metro Discount Food - 1 - Walmart - 5 - CVS/Walgreens - 2 - Dollar General - 1
If HEB makes it into my area it will be a level 5 threat.
If you are in local 540 then they are comming into the north Texas area. They have bought land in Tyler texas and should be building a distrabution center soon , if not already started. They have bought land for 28 stores in the DFW area , from what Kroger told us last year.
Portland is a weird beast, grocery competition wise.
Within the shopping radius of my store :
1 New Seasons Market (but its a very small location, only 9000 sq. ft, but every department still there, crammed in, but there) Threat Level 4 (higher prices, but better quality, and focused on local/natural/fresh/store produced products. Its amazing the amount of requests we get for products that they carry, and wonder why the hell we cant stock at a lower price!)
1 Safeway (not open yet, they tore down a really depressing old store and built a brand new one) Threat Level 3 (not concerned about their quality or selection, but Safeway does have aggressive ads and you never know, its supposedly going to be the Portland flagship store for them)
Theres also a little produce farm stand, that has a neat little Meat/Fish shop. Focuses on nothing but grass fed, local meats and sustainable seafoods. Not cheap but this isn't a poor area.
If you extend out a bit, you run into about 4 other Fred Meyers, a QFC (owned by Kroger, nice stores), another New Seasons, 2 Whole Foods, and 2 Zupans (local store, similar focus to New Seasons but not quite as good imho)
So our competition is really...ourselves. I try to get people to see Whole Foods and New Seasons as the real competition for perishable departments. Why pay 99 cents a pound for conventional who-knows-where-they-are-from carrots, lets say, when you can pay $1.29 for organic carrots grown down the road? We're lucky to live in a HIGHLY productive agricultural area.
I think the conventional grocery is dead. But there is hope. People who are either too poor to care, or just dont care about what they eat and how its produced, are going to chase the cheapest prices. They aren't our customers anyway, they might come in for a hot ad but thats it. Wal Mart is coming into the market but they are really going to take biz away from WinCo (very cheap ex-Cub Foods stores), and probably kill off the few Albertsons remaining in town if they are situated close by. Safeway will survive purely on having some real good locations.
But many people, most especially here in the Pacific NW, care about their food and the effects it has on themselves and the world around them. Thats how New Seasons could sprout up and open 12 stores in 12 years, and have ambitious plans to open more. Whole Foods has 8 locations here too! The conventional grocer has to either go completely low end and become just another Wal-Mart (who they will lose to, hell, Wally's would run the entire Portland division at a loss for years just to run out the competition I bet!), or give the customers a reason to come in, which should be high quality merchandise and abundant customer service (which obviously Kroger only partly cares about #1 and could care less about #2).
Wal-Mart isnt much of a threat either, as they are NOT opening supercenters in this market. No city council will approve them. They are getting sites for the Neighborhood market stores, which is just a WalMart grocery. FredMeyer will retain the "one stop shopping" advantage, and hopefully shift more resources to better products, not just cheap prices. Otherwise everyone falls and you have WalMart, Grocery Outlet, etc. on the low end and Whole Foods, etc. on the high end and nowhere in between.
Another thing I think will die off is Ads in general. I mean the big newspaper and flyer circulars. Fewer and Fewer people read the news, or care about much in general where local advertisement could reach them. I bet we'd get big response to Facebook-based specials, or Twitter specials. Or just have a big sign at the front of the store that says THIS WEEKS SPECIALS and pick some hot deals for each department, based on whats seasonally cheap! Thats what the "real" competition does.
-Albertsons - 3 - Aldi - 1 Metro Discount Food - 1 - Walmart - 5 - CVS/Walgreens - 2 - Dollar General - 1
If HEB makes it into my area it will be a level 5 threat.
If you are in local 540 then they are comming into the north Texas area. They have bought land in Tyler texas and should be building a distrabution center soon , if not already started. They have bought land for 28 stores in the DFW area , from what Kroger told us last year.
I'm in local 540 and I know in Grandbury they built their first HEB there. It tore us up quite a bit in that area. How does Kroger get information about them buying land in the DFW area?
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My Views and Opinions do not reflect that of the Kroger company. I'm an indivdual expressing my 1st amendment right.
Yes Indiana is now a Right to Work state. I wonder how many Kroger employees are going to withdraw membership when the new contract is approved. I myself will keep my membership. A few days after RTW passed there was a print off from Kroger in our breakroom telling us RTW passed and when the new contract comes out, employees will have several options to choose from.
Right to Work is actually a bad idea. If you have a closed shop state like California your unions are much stronger and benefits and pay are better too.
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My Views and Opinions do not reflect that of the Kroger company. I'm an indivdual expressing my 1st amendment right.
