The Bottom Dollar Stores have been open for about a week now.
What is your impression of the Bottom Dollar Stores in Youngstown?
Cute commericals.....
What, no comment about the UFCW "store closing team" standing outside of these stores with signs? Do the pro union people on this forum advocate Youngstown once again reclaiming its food desert status?
How is a store that serves a market made up primarily of people on government assistance possibly going to make enough profit to pay union scale?
Pro union people do not advocate store closings. Pro union people like the UFCW advocate improving benefits to working people.
Big Business could afford to pay union wages at these Youngstown stores if they paid less to their CEO's in the way of salaries,
perks, etc.
In comparing their weekly ad with the ads for Save-A-Lot they seem to be equal price wise BUT Save-A-Lot has a real meat deal select 5 packages for $20.00 and their meat is on the par with Giant Eagle in quality. Since there is only myself to feed that meat deal can carry me through the month. I love cheese but whether it's Save-A-Lot or Bottom Dollar I'll still opt for Giant Eagle. Last month I wanted a special cheese - aged Swiss Cheese and most of the Swiss Cheese I saw was Baby Swiss so I asked the lady in the deli and she took me over to the cheese department and picked a chunk out for me and it was exactly what I wanted. Aged Swiss has a wonderful nutty flavor that you don't get with Baby Swiss.
Back in the late 80s or early 90s I knew a guy that worked in the non-union Giant Eagle on Belmont right out of high school. He got to know the pro union picketers pretty well as they were actually allowed to stand by the front doors at the time. He eventually decided that he didn't feel right about crossing the "picket line" and got a job at a union grocery store in the area (Value King on Logan maybe?) He ended up making the same money with similar benefits but had to pay union dues thus reducing his take home pay.
I'd be surprised if anything has changed much.
As a shopper, to be perfectly honest, I couldn't care less whether a store is union or non-union period. I shop where the store meets the following standards:
1. The store personal are curtious and helpful, knowing where their stock is, and in the case of the Meat, Bakery and Deli can cheerfully give me advice.
2. The store is clean.
3. A wide variety of goods.
4. A goodly number of specials.
5. I get the biggest bang for my money.
I've shopped at the Belmont Giant Eagle for almost 30 years, and must say that they exceed the four things I look for, and quite francly enjoy shopping there.
When Sparkles was in the Union Square Plaza, I also enjoyed my shopping experience there as well
The secret I've found is how you treat store personal that really counts. You treat them the way you want others to treat you and they get to know you and will go that extra mile for you.
As far as Save-A-Lot is concerned, they fail in one respect and that is in the quality of their canned goods. I'm not keen on off brand goods, but their meat is exceptional. They do have a nice line of specials though - 10 for $10.00 and I do take advantage of that.
Since I shop for a month I hit both stores in that one trip, and for the rest of the month trade at the little store across the street from me for basic staples such as bread and milk and a few things from their deli.
Why is it so many today want to play Robin Hood?
Do these people realize they are being played like an old fiddle?
Do they understand that 7 of the 10 richest people in Congress are Democrats?
Do they even care?
A Job is a Job and today that's a good thing. According to what I heard those picketers are hired by a Union but they are not Union members.. Minimum wage sign holders.....
No one tells me where to shop without getting the sharp edge of my tongue to borrow a British expression.
I was a union member for 22 years until it threw my department under the bus, so from that day on, the only people that count for anything in my world are me, my family and a very select group of friends.
I just wonder how many of those folks that profess to be pro union limit their shpping for goods actually limit their shopping at union stores and restaurants.
It's not a Democrat or Republican thing.....
If a corporation or big business can afford to lavish CEO'S with huge salaries,insurance,profit sharing,
and extra untold bonuses....
then they should be able to offer working employees a 40 hour week, a living wage, and insurance.
I grow tired of the argument that paying union wages and insurance would drive up prices for consumers.
Does not the huge salaries and bonuses that CEO'S make also drive up prices?
If CEO pay was cut along with bonus perks, then could not these stores also pass on savings to the consumers?
Dennis, the profit margen for grocery stores, even the big box grocery stores is slim and the costs of doing business gets bigger each year, so you can't put a grocer in the same catagory with big oil, big steel, or any other catagory.
Further consider just the produce department. Fresh produce is saleable only so long then it has to be pulled off the shelf and thrown into the dumpster. The same for the bakery department. Everything they have to throw ouit is a loss.
There are tons of costs to running a grocery store. From stocking and cleaning to restocking and transportation. And unfortunately in some areas security.
Then of course you have the lights, water, and gas bills.
And lord only knows about the taxes and attorney fees.
And the CEO and the managers don't deserve that higher salary for making it all come together.......
No reason to pay them any more than the stock boy, right?
You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it........
Why can't corporations and big business provide living wages and benefits to
all employees?
Why can't corporations provide living wages and benefits to the 99 percent?
Why are such items only given to the top 1 percent?
Why can't big business and corporations spread the wealth and benefits?
Regarding Bottom Dollars parent corporation:
Delhaize Group was founded in Belgium in 1867.
As of 31 December 2006, Delhaize Group had a sales network (which includes directly operated, franchised, and affiliated stores) of 2,705 stores and employed approximately 140,000 people. Store formats are primarily supermarkets, which represent 85% of Delhaize Group's sales network. Delhaize Group's sales network also includes other store formats such as neighborhood stores, convenience stores, and specialty stores.
In addition to food retailing, which accounted for approximately 95% of Delhaize Group's sales in 2005, Delhaize Group also engages in food wholesaling to stores in its sales network and in nonfood retailing of products such as pet products and health and beauty products.
Delhaize Group recorded sales of €19.225 billion in 2006 and net income of €351.9 million.
This ain't no mom and pop store. This corporation can afford to offer employees a living wage and benefits.
99% is a farce..........
Lavish spending when it comes to paying huge salaries and benefits to CEO'S is a farce.....
paying living wages and benefits to the working class is right and just.
Dennis here is the lowdown on this money grabbing outfit by way of their annual report especially their financial report.
http://www.delhaizegroup.com/Portals/0/html/AnnualReport/2010/en/appli.htm (http://www.delhaizegroup.com/Portals/0/html/AnnualReport/2010/en/appli.htm)
This should give you all the ammo you need.
Quote from: sfc_oliver on February 15, 2012, 09:49:51 PM
And the CEO and the managers don't deserve that higher salary for making it all come together.......
No reason to pay them any more than the stock boy, right?
You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it........
Sorry to continue off-topic, but statements like the above make me wonder if some people really don't understand the issue at hand. AFAIK, no one is saying that CEO's and managers don't deserve more pay than the stock boy. The issue, as I see it, is that, while CEO's are taking their private jets off to their private island for the weekend, the stock boy is deciding whether he should pay that month's rent or feed his family. In other words, it's not the income inequality itself that's the problem, but the size of the inequality. (and BTW, I have no idea if the corporation that owns Bottom Dollar stores is guilty of this kind of thing, or not)
BTW - Stores like the one under consideration do not employ bag boys as everyone who ever shopped at one of the discount grocery stores should well know.
Secondly IF you folks would take the time to look over the Annual Report I linked to, THEY DO HAVE EMPLOY BENEFITS.
Just how far down they go, I NOR YOU can say with ABSOLUTE UNREFUTABLE CERTENTY!
The level of compensation is commensurate with the level of responsibility. A cashier at the local Bottom Dollar is only responsible for her cash register and those other shared responsibilities in that one store. The CEO is responsible for making sure that all of the thousands of stores operate at a profit and is responsible for every single employee under his command.
If the cashier screws up there may be a little bit of money lost or there will be an unhappy customer. If the CEO screws up, THOUSANDS of people lose their jobs, entire communities become food deserts and the quality of life for countless inner city dwellers suffers. There is simply NO FREAKING WAY that you can pay a CEO a cashier's wage to take on that responsibility. Conversely, the small amount of responsibility that a cashier has is in no way is worth what a CEO makes. It is not inequality at all. You are comparing apples and oranges. The two jobs are not even in the same universe!
Get your head out of your butt and learn what happens in the real world. This is more complicated than a sound bite Dennis!
Sorry, I can't believe providing everyday employees a living wage with benefits will bankrupt the parent company
of Bottom Dollar foods.
I can't believe that if the parent company offers a living wage and benefits to everyday employees at the expense of lowering
compensation of CEO's a bit....that all of a sudden no one would apply for these CEO positions at a lower wage
that is currently being offered.
Sorry Rick, but the real world of business that drops huge, huge, huge money on CEO's at the expense of giving employees a living wage and benefits is what is wrong with society and business.
A resident of Youngstown addressed city council last week and complained that very few miniorities were hired at Bottom Dollar.
If anyone went to the BD store, what is your estimate of the makeup of the staff?
EASY SOLUTION ... BOYCOTT BOTTOM DOLLAR ... SET UP PICKET LINES AT ALL THEIR STORES ... SEND THEM THE MESSAGE THAT WE DON'T WANT FOREIGN BASED STORES IN YOUNGSTOWN SELLING US FOREIGN MADE PRODUCTS ... SUPPORT AMERICAN OWNED GROCERY STORES THAT SELL MADE IN AMERICAN GOODS ... SEND BELGEM OWNED BOTTOM DOLLAR BACK TO BELGEM!