[lbo-talk] Re: RE: WMT goes orgo

Jim Straub rustbeltjacobin at gmail.com
Mon Aug 28 10:40:10 PDT 2006


Another thing to factor in: Whole Foods ain't union, and has actually fought union drives with twisted progressive or 'alternative' rhetoric.

However, leaving them and big-box stores like wal mart and target aside, other than that retail food supermarkets are a bastion of organized labor in the service industry. I'm writing an article about this for a magazine called clamor, and have been sort of surprised to learn that union density in many regions in supermarkets is like 80%! !! !! I was a ufcw member when I worked at a superfresh thru high school.

Union-vended food tastes better. I've done blind taste tests. F'real.


>
> [WS:] I do not think Whole Foods is a good example of what I was talking
> about - I was thinking more of "alternative" food stores that sell much
> more
> grossly overpriced foodstuff together with snake oil and sundry products
> of
> quackery and witchcraft.
>
> Whole Foods is more like a specialty supermarket, a section of Safeway or
> Wegmans if you will, than an "alternative" food store. To be sure, it is
> somewhat overpriced (vis a vis Safeway or Wegmans). I never buy their
> organic stuff unless it is substantially discounted (which they rarely
> do.)
> To me, Whole Foods offers mainly two benefits:
> - a selection of "gourmet" items (especially cheeses) not available
> elsewhere (this is true of most of the US, except New York City);
> - not having to run through the gauntlet of mostly right-wing tabloids
> prominently on display in the checkout line.
>
> But if you do not care about these things, I think you would be better off
> buying your chocolate chip cookies at Safeway or Wegmans.
>
> Wojtek
>
>
>
>
>
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