City of Los Angeles Seal (Photo: Los Angeles Twitter page)
Several Los Angeles Supermarkets Close Due To City-Ordered ‘Hero Pay’ Pay Bumps
Extra $5 an hour per worker for 4 months under ‘hero pay’ ordinance to cost Kroger $20 million in LA alone
By Evan Symon, March 10, 2021 8:06 pm
Kroger announced Wednesday that three more grocery stores would be closing in the LA-area in the next few months due to the city’s recent “hero pay” ordinance.
Under the Los Angeles “hero pay” ordinance passed earlier this month by the LA City Council, grocery store workers will, by law, receive an extra $5 an hour due to increased risks and workloads as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Grocery, pharmacy, and some retail workers are covered under the ordinance, which will last 120 days until expiring in early July.
The Long Beach “hero pay” ordinance caused a strain on many grocery stores, with 2, both owned by Kroger, being forced to close due to the higher costs making the stores not viable anymore. L.A. officials said that that would not happen under their ordinance. However, two Ralphs and a Food 4 Less, all owned by Kroger, were announced to close sometime in May. While all three had been struggling for some time and had been planned to close at some point after the pandemic to continue access of food in their respective areas, the extra $5 per hour per employee added another $20 million in operating costs across the board for Kroger in LA, forcing their hand to close underperforming stores.
“The mandate will add an additional $20 million in operating costs over the next 120 days, making it financially unsustainable to continue operating underperforming locations,” said Kroger in a press release. “The Los Angeles City Council disregarded their own Economic Impact Report by not considering that grocery stores – even in a pandemic – operate on razor-thin profit margins in a very competitive landscape.”
In another statement later on Wednesday, Kroger emphasized the strain that grocery stores have been under since the beginning of the pandemic:
“It’s never our desire to close a store, but when you factor in the increased costs of operating during COVID-19, consistent financial losses at these three locations, and an extra pay mandate that will cost nearly $20 million over the next 120 days, it becomes impossible to operate these three stores,” said the Cincinnati-based supermarket company.
Unions were quick to comment shortly after Kroger’s announcement on Wednesday, decrying the companies decision to close stores while also defending “hero pay”, which they referred to as hazard pay.
“Essential workers in grocery stores are putting their health at risk every day to make sure families can put food on the table and city leaders are stepping up to ensure they have the hazard pay they have earned,” said the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union in a statement on Wednesday. “Hazard pay is not just about recognizing the health risks grocery workers face, it’s about making sure that these essential workers have the support they need to keep our grocery stores safe for customers and ensure all our families have the food we need as the pandemic continues.
“They’re threatening the food supply for communities hit hard by the region’s more than 130 COVID-19 grocery store outbreaks and destroying the jobs of hundreds of essential grocery workers.”
Grocery store, commerce organizations denounce LA “hero pay” ordinance
However, many grocery store and commerce organizations were quick to defend the decision as well, pointing out that grocery stores are very sensitive to sudden financial changes to stores and that the city councils are forcing them to pay more than they can afford, as well as pointing out the hypocrisy of their actions.
“The pay bump was the wrong decision,” said the Valley Industry & Commerce Association in a Wednesday statement. “It is wrong and hypocritical for the City to expect these suffocating provisions from businesses when they are not themselves providing ‘Hazard Pay’ to the countless City employees that are keeping our city running. The future is bleak for Los Angeles. If the City Council continues to insert itself in business affairs, disregarding community concerns, expert warnings, and concrete evidence, businesses will not want to invest in Los Angeles.”
Experts noted that they had warned other cities that this would happen to them due to the strong effect the pay bump had on store closures in Long Beach.
“I told the Globe last month that this would happen in Los Angeles,” Southern California adaptive reuse consultant Henry Grigoryan told the Globe. “Of course it would happen. The ordinance is costing each store thousands more per day. The LA City Council passed it 14-1, with many citing ‘moral reason’s for voting yes. They didn’t look at the financial realities of it for companies. They didn’t look at the food deserts this would cause. They didn’t think of the dozens of people now going to be out of work at each location. The council was playing chicken with Kroger on this, as they expected them to flinch and not do this. Kroger just wasn’t playing a game and was just looking at the grim figures it caused. I don’t know what else to say.”
The three stores in LA are expected to close by mid-May. Other closures by different companies are possible in the coming weeks as the first paychecks with the new pay bump are due to go out soon.
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This is what happens when you elect economically ignorant Democrats into office, who make decisions based upon their emotions or the virtue-signaling “optics”…
Now their constituents go hungry….
Well played, Democraps….
thats happens when you elect ANY DEMOCRAT TO OFFICE
Mandates are not laws
This, along with serial robberies and other crimes, is how food deserts form. We need a summer downpour to wash away those whose inclement policies are responsible for this drought of common sense.
These are communities who need easy access to food the most! These are low-income communities who struggle day to day, and now face the prospect of having to travel further for necessities in expensive and lower quality transportation, to places out of their easy reach, kids in tow, just to buy food. THE CITY COUNCIL DID A HOSTILE DUMP on its most fragile and suffering citizens!!! THE CITY COUNCIL SHOULD ALL BE SHOT…UP AGAINST SOME WALL IN THE COMMUNITIES THEY BETRAYED! OTOH, maybe now that Disneyland has been made inaccessible to the dregs of society (no more monthly payment plan), perhaps they’ll have both the time and money to go get their food, now. What do you think?
All of this pay, suffering, deprivation and fear over a fake pandemic, over an illness that is 99.8% survivable. The “essential” workers aren’t “heroes” and these grocery clerks are not working in “hazardous” conditions. The City of Los Angeles is literally causing more stress, pain and financial loss by its unfair, unjust ordinance. Throw the bums out who made this decision. Kroger’s is only doing what any sane individual would do when confronted with outright theft
The city council buffoons should pool their money and open their own grocery stores and try to run it by their rules. Let’s see them put their money where their ignorant pie hole is.
L.A. City Council is joined at the hip with the unions and that’s why you are seeing this reality-defying nonsense.
It’s the UNIONS that came up with calling grocery workers “heroes” and “first responders.”
Never let a crisis go to waste! As you know. Even one that’s not a crisis anymore.
In my local school district they called teachers “first responders” (you know, like NYFD after 9/11) as one way to get support and goodies. How has that worked out? Although I’ve met many good teachers, it’s not exactly the image that comes to mind anymore when someone says “hero.” Not when LAUSD overwhelmingly voted recently to not even do their jobs.
Governments deal in imaginary money, business pay in real money. Reality is fast closing in on California and it will not be pretty.
Here’s how this works: you have legacy community supermarkets on big lots, and these are more profitable for residential development, but community activists want to keep food shopping options local, so they oppose rezoning, and there are still legacy profit margins. Then you go full Hegelian Dialectic: problem, reaction solution, and the Cronies take kickbacks to pass fauxgressive legislation with no rational basis such as “hero pay” which causes the opposite result: firing the heros, and it opens up land to Corrupt Developers attached to Gavin NewScam and Strada Development who then redevelop the former supermarket property and kick it back to Garcetti and NewScam.
FOR LEASE SIGNS
are popular items for shopping centers in the state
Couldn’t these building structures be turned into grocery courts like food courts. I suspect there are lots of “ma & pa” operations that would love the opportunity to sell their stuff in an environment like this. Of course they would have to get past arbitrary city permitting conditions first.
Mandates are not laws.
Its beyond time for the people to revolt. Where are you men of courage?
The government politicians are our employees… they seem to forget they are placed in those positions to serve the people not self. Anyone with a 1/2 a brain can see the corruption is real. They have completely ruined CA. So many of us tax payers have moved from CA. Soon they will be left with the illegal migrants and homeless. This nation needs a Jesus revival!
I live in a northern county. Stores markets were allowed limited patrons. Lines were outside of Macys. Not many full closures except dining and bars and sports events. places as big as Cosco had no closures. We had a big surge of covid, a lot of the activities traced to one org activities. We were able to buy food anywhere. much different than L.A. County. hate to see needed stores close. Lived in your area for years.