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What do you get when you cross a Fred Meyer with an Albertsons? A court battle, a picket line, and some very irritable customers. (Also a Fred Albert, which sounds like a highball they’d serve at the Benson.) The bid by Kroger Co. to buy Albertsons Companies Inc., owner of Safeway, for $25 billion has resulted in federal court hearings in Portland (Murmurs, WW, Aug. 28). Workers at Freddy’s stores all over town filed an unfair labor complaint and walked out last Wednesday—we have photos from the picket lines on page 19. Here’s what our readers had to say:
Michael V, via wweek.com: “Fred Meyer was once a great regional store chain. It has declined sharply since being taken over by Kroger. This merger should not go forward. The last thing the country needs is another Walmart look-alike.”
John J Collet, via Twitter: “The only way I can afford Fred’s or Safeway is when they have that $10 off if you spend $50. It would be good to get rid of them and give C&S a chance to have real people pricing.”
mutie, via wweek.com: “Their statement read, ‘After the merger closes, Kroger will invest $1 billion to lower Albertsons’ prices, consistent with Kroger’s track record of fighting inflation and providing value to customers.’ I don’t know how to interpret it, either. It doesn’t necessarily mean what WW and other media are claiming, though. It could mean, for example, they will spend $1 billion to improve their distribution system, which would lower prices by a point or two (or less). It doesn’t automatically mean a billion in savings for their customers, and any ‘savings’ figure would need to be time-bound to make any sense.”
GT Webb, via Facebook: “I’m not a leftist union warrior, but Fred Meyer is committing unfair labor practices by having non-union managers do union employees’ positions. They won’t hire hourly employees to help us out, and we are overworked.
“The managers were doing hourly jobs long before the strike because they won’t hire anyone to help us. My store is busy from open to close, and the clientele is classless, rude, threatening, and there are drug addicts roaming around stealing and smoking fentanyl in the public bathrooms. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Not Me, via Twitter: “Wanna know who’s not on strike today? Self-checkout terminals.”
Wilbur Kimble, via wweek.com: “A company who made a net profit of $2.2 billion and paid their CEO $15 million can afford to meet worker demands.
“I won’t be crossing the picket line. Support unions.”
Truth1216, via wweek.com: “The workers you are talking about can be replaced with anyone on the street and trained in a month. Might want to rethink that.”
oregoner, via wweek.com: “The vast majority of retail theft is done by employees. So you might want to rethink bringing in random people off the street.”
Jodi, via Twitter: “It’s amazing the amount of Portlanders crossing those lines. Thought this city was blue. SMH.”
JaaMack, via wweek.com: “Bring us some Piggly Wiggly, y’all!”
Letters to the editor must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: P.O. Box 10770, Portland, OR 97296 Email: mzusman@wweek.com