10 Safeway to close in Lower Mainland

[alanjh595]

I agree with the above, I hate the loyalty rewards programs too. I also hate the buying in multiples programs. Pay $1.35 for one or pay $1.15 each on 3 or more.

I just redeemed all of my Save-on points on the card that I haven't used in years for a $435 food processor. I think I have enough left for a free bag of corn.

[Jlabute]

It’s getting more difficult in Vancouver to bilk residents from their hard earned money. There is more competition in the likes of Asian T&T supermarkets that bring lower prices and larger variety of goods. Safeway just didn’t change with the quickly changing times. I went to TNT last summer to see they sell Kelowna cherries cheaper than Kelowna orchards.

[alanjh595]

It’s getting more difficult in Vancouver to bilk residents from their hard earned money. There is more competition in the likes of Asian T&T supermarkets that bring lower prices and larger variety of goods. Safeway just didn’t change with the quickly changing times. I went to TNT last summer to see they sell Kelowna cherries cheaper than Kelowna orchards.

Isn't TNT GREAT?! Did you see the size of those carrots? That is the closest thing to shopping in China.

[GordonH]

It’s getting more difficult in Vancouver to bilk residents from their hard earned money. There is more competition in the likes of Asian T&T supermarkets that bring lower prices and larger variety of goods. Safeway just didn’t change with the quickly changing times. I went to TNT last summer to see they sell Kelowna cherries cheaper than Kelowna orchards.

Guess who owns Asian T&T supermarkets..... you guessed it Loblaws
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-i ... le4389458/

[Jlabute]

Ha, no way, damn they own just about everything that sells food. My wife makes pretty good spring rolls, maybe I can sell her for $200M, lol.

[twobits]

Ha, no way, damn they own just about everything that sells food. My wife makes pretty good spring rolls, maybe I can sell her for $200M, lol.

Could me and my wife rent her for an evening for a little less and her recipe? We have a real weakness for spring rolls.

[twobits]

I haven't purchased shampoo since my mid 20s. lol....... Dizzy1

So sorry you were so follically challenged at such an early age lol.

[GordonH]

I haven't purchased shampoo since my mid 20s. lol....... Dizzy1

So sorry you were so follically challenged at such an early age lol.

Hey no worries, as kid I enjoyed watching Kojak. So a number of years later I became my own Kojak (minus being a detective though).

[alanjh595]

the savings in shampoo are made up with the cost of razor blades. ........and bandages.

[ferri]

[twobits]

:-X

OK. Quite obviously there is a consolidation in the industry. It started about 30 yrs ago and continues. It began with grocery store owners realizing that the skill set to stock shelves and run a cash till and put groceries into a bag did not require 25 bucks an hour plus pension and benefits. We all paid for that in our food bill. And quite honestly, the absurd wages paid for that task were an insult to trained professionals, journeymen, and other trained skilled and educated labour that made the same and more often less. So the industry woke up because a few brave employers woke up and said "no, we are not going to pay you that much for an unskilled job. A job that requires 4 hrs of training on a cash till or barcode scanner to stock shelves" The rest is evolution.
Does that about sum it up?

[twobits]

I agree with the above, I hate the loyalty rewards programs too. I also hate the buying in multiples programs. Pay $1.35 for one or pay $1.15 each on 3 or more.

Sorry but I don't see the problem with what is basically a volume discount. We all expect it when we buy in bulk. What's the price of one tire VS four? What's the price expected for 10 sheets of drywall for the reno instead of one? It's cost per transaction for the retailer and why shouldn't we as consumers be able to leverage that?

[fluffy]

Quite obviously there is a consolidation in the industry. It started about 30 yrs ago and continues. It began with grocery store owners realizing that the skill set to stock shelves and run a cash till and put groceries into a bag did not require 25 bucks an hour plus pension and benefits. We all paid for that in our food bill. And quite honestly, the absurd wages paid for that task were an insult to trained professionals, journeymen, and other trained skilled and educated labour that made the same and more often less. So the industry woke up because a few brave employers woke up and said "no, we are not going to pay you that much for an unskilled job. A job that requires 4 hrs of training on a cash till or barcode scanner to stock shelves" The rest is evolution.
Does that about sum it up?

That's one perspective. Another fact of corporate "evolution" is that of responsibility. It used to be that large employers were expected to show a level of responsibility to 1.) Customers, by offering quality goods at a competitive price, 2.) Owners/Investors, by providing an appropriate return on their investment, and 3.) Employees, through wages and benefits commensurate with skills and length of service. As numbers 1 & 2 have grown more demanding, the 3's have seen their slice of the pie reduced. Private sector health and pension plans have become increasingly rare for those without union bargaining power, and those unions have become just another obstacle to jump in servicing the 1's and 2's.

Safeway, like so many others, has been forced out of being able to offer attractive careers in order to compete with those willing to offer only low paying jobs with mediocre benefits, if any at all, in order to hang on to a customer base that themselves are finding it increasingly hard to bring home a good living. We are well on the road to becoming a nation of minimum wage earners there only to service that top few percent.

[Urban Cowboy]

:-X

OK. Quite obviously there is a consolidation in the industry. It started about 30 yrs ago and continues. It began with grocery store owners realizing that the skill set to stock shelves and run a cash till and put groceries into a bag did not require 25 bucks an hour plus pension and benefits. We all paid for that in our food bill. And quite honestly, the absurd wages paid for that task were an insult to trained professionals, journeymen, and other trained skilled and educated labour that made the same and more often less. So the industry woke up because a few brave employers woke up and said "no, we are not going to pay you that much for an unskilled job. A job that requires 4 hrs of training on a cash till or barcode scanner to stock shelves" The rest is evolution.
Does that about sum it up?

I agree that you have a point to a certain extent, however if you look at it that way, what about all the auto manufacturer employees, who earn ridiculous wages plus benefits, and that for basically doing a task that they can learn in a few hours, and repeat in the assembly line all day long?

Is tightening a few nuts and bolts all that skilled?

Or what about letter carriers, where the only skill you require is the ability to read an address on an envelope, and mine gets that wrong at least twice a week, just in my box alone?

Actually I'd say a grocery store checkout clerk, has to have better skills than a letter carrier, who doesn't really have to deal with the public much these days.

I'm just trying to make the point that we need to be careful as to how we rank skills and subsequent pay packages.

[fluffy]

I'm just trying to make the point that we need to be careful as to how we rank skills and subsequent pay packages.

Exactly. "Unskilled" is not a term to be bandied about lightly. In many cases its use betrays a prejudicial lack of vision in just what kind of skills are needed to be successful in a so-called unskilled job.