There’s Just No Food!
There’s actually something pretty serious going on in Southern California and it’s not all related to the ridiculous recall of a few weeks back. This past Sunday the union that represents some 70,000 Supermarket workers decided to go on strike, protesting the suggestions made by markets Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons to lower wages for new employees and to dramatically change their health benefits. So, outside those three markets throughout SoCal can be found a line of workers on strike, some locations louder than others.
For the moment most people in SoCal appear not to want to cross that picket line. Amongst the friends I’ve spoken to they’ve all gone to alternate places to shop, preferring to show their support for the striking workers. The strikers are urging people to go to Gelsons (an upscale supermarket chain in Los Angeles) or Food4Less, stores where the company signed new contracts with the unions months ago. People are also making their way to alternate markets like Trader Joes or Whole Foods. People are listening to the pleas of the striking workers and I’ve seen proof of it myself.
I generally do most of my shopping at Trader Joes, a chain of neighborhood style grocery stores known for their health and international foods. It’s really unfair to just label this store as a health food store, that should be reserved for a chain like Whole Foods. Trader Joes is just a cool, small market that has foods no one else has. They also have household products, but nothing in bulk. Well, last night I went to Trader Joes on Riverside in Toluca Lake around 8:30 and found the store had been cleaned out! I’ve never seen anything like it. There’s a large wall usually filled with various breads, but last night there were two, count ‘em, two loaves of bread. The vegetables/fruits area was even more barren! I kid you not when I say the ONLY thing available was fresh Ginger root, and only one package of it. The frozen foods section was at about 1/3 of it’s normal stock. The pre-prepared foods section had maybe 6 things left! What the hell? Was I suddenly transported to Communist Russia where a line for fresh bread could be three hours long? Was a hurricane on its way to devastate the SoCal region?
Now, this Trader Joes is currently going under a remodeling, so the place is somewhat a mess right now. But was the lack of food caused by shoppers coming to Trader Joes as opposed to the major super markets, or was it because of the remodel? I asked my checker and he told me the store has been overwhelmed by shoppers since Monday, the first full weekday of the strike. They were prepared for a small increase in business, but nothing like they’ve seen. Indeed, at 8:30 on a Tuesday night Trader Joes was far busier than usual. He did assure me that by Friday they’d be back to full stock levels, having made major increases in orders, but it took time for these things to go through the system.
I came away with about $30 worth of groceries and house hold items, but I still needed stuff! What to do?
So, I had a car filled with some groceries, which included frozen foods. Did I drive 15 - 20 minutes to Gelson’s? I couldn’t! My stuff would melt. So, I decided let’s go to the local Ralphs and see what’s up. The Ralphs I go to is in Studio City on Ventura Blvd. … it’s a great store, actually. They’ve got underground parking there. I opted to park underground to avoid the striking workers, who were being honked at in a show of solidarity by drivers in their car speeding by on Ventura. I went up and outside to pick up a shopping cart and talked to one of the strikers for a bit. I asked the lady if she got pissed when people crossed the picket lines and she said, no, she understands, but she urges people to just get those items they have to get and try to support other markets which aren’t affected by the strike. We spoke for a bit, then I went inside and bought some bread and produce, things sold out at Trader Joes. BTW, there was more than enough food at Ralphs and as I understand it lots of fresh product is going to waste.
I’ll throw my support behind the striking workers for as long as I can. I’ll plan a bit better when it comes to my shopping until the strike is over. I’m hoping for everyone’s sake both sides can come to an agreement soon.
