What’s wild is I’m not even mad about this to some extent. Like personalized price adjustments just feels like better couponing. Its just the fact the majority of people’s food needs are met by for profit companies means that the well being of their customers are not even on the table of shit they track for.
Worse yet, we KNOW they are selling this data and our privacy is 100% not a concern of theirs either.
If my local grocery coop, farmers market did this, and gave reasonable efforts to keep their systems local, secure, data lean, and optional. I wouldn’t even be mad. This is none of those things and done, again, by people that would crush orphans for profit if there was a market for it.
I already don’t shop at my local Kroger owned store because they’re anti union cuntfucks, this is just icing on the cake to never enter their stores ever again.
Most are unionized but not all. Kroger’s union is also just not very good. I never met a union rep that wasn’t friends with management. They do very little to actually represent workers. Also, Kroger has such a high turnover rate that newer employees will usually vote to approve any contract that gives them a raise, no matter how small.
These contracts last for a few years, so as other retailers raise wages to compete with each other, Kroger workers are stuck in their old contract until it expires. If anything, Kroger’s union results in lower wages for the workers compared to other grocery retailers.
UFCW is further weakened by “right-to-work” laws that give union benefits to non-union employees. In my experience, many of the people who opt out of union membership are brainwashed by conservatism and are anti-union. They are also often the people who stay at Kroger the longest.
In addition, Kroger has dozens of “districts”, each with their own contract. These contracts are all negotiated at different times so that if there is a strike, Kroger can send managers from other districts and hire scabs until the strike is over. This prevents strikes from ever really hurting Kroger’s bottom line.
So, to answer your question, Kroger is technically unionized but it’s union is pretty ineffective. Kroger basically operates the same as Walmart or Meijer but with a handful of union policies that they have to follow or they might get fined for a union violation.
With that being said, I am still very pro union. The above is just based on my own experience, having worked there for too many years.
Time to invent The Shopping Mask.
Trader Joe’s, aldi, and small private stores from now on. Go fuck yourselves Kroeger.
If ethical reasons are a concern, you might want to avoid Trader Joe’s as well on account of their union busting activities.
I hear you. I agree that union busting is bad. I support trader joes employees unionizing. I don’t want their stores to close and those employees to be out of a job.
Any employer that’s a union buster deserves to be boycotted until they close and something better comes along to fill the need (which it will do quickly). In truth, the grocery supply chain/warehousing being so strongly coupled with the supermarkets is the primary point of inertia in the US regarding grocery stores opening where they’re needed. Most independent distributors only focus on restaurant contracts, because they can achieve higher margins there.
Edit: Not that coop distribution doesn’t exist. For example https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Wholesale_Grocers who are represented by the teamsters in four of their distribution centers.
Curious as to what the union’s demands are. It’s my impression that Trader Joe’s treats their employees relatively well. I have multiple friends who work for them and are paid a living wage (in the Bay Area of all places) for working reasonable hours.
If a company genuinely cares about their employees, they’d support them unionizing.
Trader Joe’s changed their stance during the pandemic and are aggressively fighting unionization. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trader-joes-attorney-nlrb-unconstitutional_n_65b41e7ae4b014b873b11cc2 https://inthesetimes.com/article/trader-joes-union-organizing-fight
Woof. The logo was always a hint about what they were planning to do to the customers. First the K and the G came for the letter o…and I did nothing because I am not the letter o.
