MODESTO, Calif. — In the midst of drawn-out negotiations over a new union contract, Save Mart Supermarkets here demoted approximately 150 senior clerks in the Sacramento area last week, cutting their hourly pay from to $21 from $16, according to published reports.
The company reportedly made similar moves earlier this year in Fresno and Merced, Calif., the reports noted. A chain spokeswoman could not be reached for comment.
However, she was quoted in local news reports saying the pay cuts were prompted by staffing ratios spelled out in the company's contract with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Because of store closures "and current economic conditions," the chain had more senior clerks than it needed, she said.


Read More: http://supermarketnews.com/retail-amp-financial/save-mart-demotes-senior-clerks#ixzz1ysuhL4Bj


Comes across as a bullying tactic to me, nothing like a 25% pay cut to keep the rabble in line

On this day in 1956, the U.S. Congress approves the Federal Highway Act, which allocates more than $30 billion for the construction of some 41,000 miles of interstate highways; it will be the largest public construction project in U.S. history to that date.

Among the pressing questions involved in passing highway legislation were where exactly the highways should be built, and how much of the cost should be carried by the federal government versus the individual states. Several competing bills went through Congress before 1956, including plans spearheaded by the retired general and engineer Lucius D. Clay; Senator Albert Gore Sr.; and Rep. George H. Fallon, who called his program the "National System of Interstate and Defense Highways," thus linking the construction of highways with the preservation of a strong national defense.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-approves-federal-highway-act


Something that lead to significant social change in this country.........

Ideally, a capitalist economy is constantly becoming more efficient. The benefits of that newly gained efficiency, however, are not always uniformly distributed. Sometimes it goes to business owners in the form of higher prices, sometimes to consumers in the form of lower prices, and other times to labor as increased wages.

You don’t have to be an economist to know that for the past generation, workers have gotten the short end of this particular stick. Corporate profits have gone steadily up, consumers have been offered an increasingly wide selection of affordable products, but wages for most of us have stagnated.

The reasons for this trend are familiar: Globalization has flooded the world labor market with cheap workers from China, India and elsewhere. Good paying manufacturing jobs have migrated overseas, while the U.S. has been left with low-wage, low-skill service jobs like that of a sales associate in the nation’s many retail outlets. Meanwhile, an era of global corporate competition has forced companies to ruthlessly seek to cut expenses wherever they can, keeping wages and benefits in these sorts of jobs depressingly low.

But what if the logic behind viewing retail labor as an expense to be cut, rather than as an asset to be invested in, is unsound? Zeynep Ton, a Professor of Operations Management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, argues just that. Her research has shown that by underinvesting in their employees, retailers are actually making their operations much more inefficient, and therefore much less profitable.

This is an area that Ton has been studying for ten years, and what she has consistently found is that companies that buck the status quo and invest heavily in their workforce actually are able to not only compete with their competitors on service but on price too. In a paper she published in the Harvard Business Review earlier this year, she writes:“Highly successful retail chains — such as QuickTrip convenience stores, Mercadona and Trader Joe’s supermarkets, and Costco wholesale clubs — not only invest heavily in store employees, but also have the lowest prices in their industries, solid financial performance, and better customer service than their competitors.”

Read more: http://business.time.com/2012/06/18/future-of-retail-companies-that-profit-by-investing-in-employees/#ixzz1yjlIgRwF


Very interesting piece....and worth reading in it's entirety as we all interact with those in retail frequently.

Most U.S. libraries lend e-books, but most people don't know about it: Only 22 percent realize the fast-growing digital format is available, according to a new survey. And even fewer people — 12 percent of e-book readers — have borrowed an e-book from the library in the past year, according to a poll released today by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.
"I'm a little surprised," Patrick Wall, director of the University City Public Library, said Thursday when told about the survey.
"Libraries are all trying to educate patrons."
The St. Louis Public Library has hundreds of requests for e-books every month, said Barb Knotts, manager for electronic collections.
In just the past 18-24 months, she said, e-book lending has surpassed the demand for audiobooks. Library card holders don't even have to go to the library to check out an e-book. Most systems allow patrons to download e-books from the library's website.
"It takes time to build any audience," Knotts said. "Libraries are now using social media to alert people about new titles."
The Pew survey delves into the tangle of issues libraries face with the evolving e-book world.
Some of those might be higher than patron ignorance on a library's list of concerns:
• E-books can cost libraries many times what a print book does.
Last year's big summer release, "A Dance With Dragons," by George R.R. Martin, was offered to the University City library at $19.95 for a hardcover, but a single e-book cost $85.


Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/fb6bf996-b0ef-57ab-b5a8-910d76415b02.html#ixzz1yVZWSxVG

Most U.S. libraries lend e-books, but most people don't know about it: Only 22 percent realize the fast-growing digital format is available, according to a new survey. And even fewer people — 12 percent of e-book readers — have borrowed an e-book from the library in the past year, according to a poll released today by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.
"I'm a little surprised," Patrick Wall, director of the University City Public Library, said Thursday when told about the survey.
"Libraries are all trying to educate patrons."
The St. Louis Public Library has hundreds of requests for e-books every month, said Barb Knotts, manager for electronic collections.
In just the past 18-24 months, she said, e-book lending has surpassed the demand for audiobooks. Library card holders don't even have to go to the library to check out an e-book. Most systems allow patrons to download e-books from the library's website.
"It takes time to build any audience," Knotts said. "Libraries are now using social media to alert people about new titles."
The Pew survey delves into the tangle of issues libraries face with the evolving e-book world.
Some of those might be higher than patron ignorance on a library's list of concerns:
• E-books can cost libraries many times what a print book does.
Last year's big summer release, "A Dance With Dragons," by George R.R. Martin, was offered to the University City library at $19.95 for a hardcover, but a single e-book cost $85.


Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/fb6bf996-b0ef-57ab-b5a8-910d76415b02.html#ixzz1yVZWSxVG

DENVER — Wal-Mart’s Neighborhood Market grocery banner made its Colorado debut Wednesday in three locations, drawing a union protest at one site here.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart said it would open two additional Neighborhood Market stores in the Denver market next week. A group of workers backed by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 here said they would rally outside the Neighborhood Market at on Parker Road in Denver Wednesday expressing concern over the types of jobs Wal-Mart was bringing to the market.
The company said the five stores would employ 400 workers. The stores range in size from 48,000 to 57,000 square feet, and each one features a self-serve deli, fresh produce, prepared foods and a pharmacy. The stores will also offer Wal-Mart’s Site to Store and Pay with Cash Internet shopping options.


Read More: http://supermarketnews.com/wal-mart-stores/protest-greets-neighborhood-market-debut-colo#ixzz1yQ7FCweh

One would think that about 80 workers per store is a pretty small staff given the square footage mentioned. I wouldn't count on much service and everything will be pretty much pre-packaged.

Woman charged after meth lab incidents at South County Walmart, gas station

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. (KMOV.com) – A woman faces multiple charges after being arrested for allegedly possessing meth-making materials at a south St. Louis County gas station Monday night. The incident came just two weeks after she was accused of bringing a mobile meth lab into a nearby Walmart.
Police said Jennifer Culp, 32, from Arnold, was arrested at the UGAS station in the 6100 block of Telegraph Road around 9:30 p.m. Monday. According to reports, Culp was in possession of a “shake and bake” meth lab.

more at

http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Woman-charged-after-meth-lab-incidents-at-South-County-Walmart-gas-station-159638635.html

One might say that she is not perhaps the sharpest knife in the drawer

It was an important time in our history & helped define our nation. For those who might have an interest in this event I suggest the podcasts available from http://www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org/Home/Podcasts.aspx

The are Free and I have listened to a couple of good author talks from their series recently about the War of 1812 and other topics.

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy said Thursday it plans "the largest rally in U.S. history against Wal-Mart" on Saturday, June 30, to protest Wal-Mart's plan to open a Neighborhood Market in Chinatown.
The rally is being billed as "a march against low-wage jobs." In a video released in conjunction with publicity on the march, a LAANE spokeswoman said Wal-Mart has "a reputation as a predatory company" that pays people so little, they must rely on public assistance. The video also says the opening of a Neighborhood Market in the close-knit Chinatown community would mean a lot of small Chinese-owned businesses in the area would have to close.

However, a group of Chinese community leaders — from the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Asian Business Association and the tenant association representing the space where the store will open — made public a letter they sent to residents of Chinatown expressing their full support for the store. "We ask that you join us in supporting this grocery store that has long been missing from our community," the letter said.

Read More: http://supermarketnews.com/retail-amp-financial/la-group-plans-anti-wal-mart-rally#ixzz1xwUdODbP

CHICAGO — Target Corp. told shareholders Wednesday it plans to open its first urban format — City Target — in three cities next month: Los Angeles, Seattle and here.

The annual meeting was held inside the Chicago location. The stores will run between 85,000 square feet and 100,000 square feet and will feature groceries and an assortment of household products geared for city residents and commuters.

Gregg Steinhafel, chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Minneapolis-based company, said Target will open a second City Target in Los Angeles and a store in San Francisco in October; and a third L.A. location and one in Portland, Ore., next year.

During the question-and-answer portion of the meeting, a shareholder from California asked why a private-label can of peaches from Target was a product of China and was priced at $1.34, while a can from "our friends in Bentonville" contained peaches from the U.S. and cost only 98 cents.

Kathryn A. Tesjia, executive vice president, merchandising, fielded the question, saying, "We are relatively new to the food business, but we're adding team members to our staff for food sourcing to buy more product locally, and I will look into it when I get back to Minneapolis."

Read to mean: We don't have a bunny's idea of how a grocery store works, nor do we expect to in the foreseeable future.

http://supermarketnews.com/retail-amp-financial/target-readies-first-three-city-targets#comment-18671