October 26, 2003
Ranting on Fires, Time and Strikes
The fires burning in San Bernardino and Rancho Cucamonga have me slightly on edge. Not that I fear the flames will reach us or that a similar fire could break out here, both entirely possible - no, I fear the smoke and ash.
When it comes, the smoke hits us like a blanket, choking daylight and breathable air from our normally clear blue skies. And then there's the ash. I remember the first summer we were here. With gale force sirocco winds, the smoke storm came in. You couldn't see more than three feet ahead, couldn't breathe and the following morning there was 1" layer of ash on everything. It was bizarre. Like something out of the movie "The Day After" (okay - I'm showing my age with that one. If you kids never saw that made for TV movie, it's probably laughable today, but back at the height of Reagan's Cold War it scared the living shit out of us!)
And this morning, though I am imagining it, I can smell it. The Santa Ana's are responsible in part for this tragedy and they blow East to West, so technically the smoke is headed for LA right now. Call me Cassandra but I'm sure the winds will shift and it's gonna be nasty. Good thing I have this left over plastic sheeting and duct tape. Bah!
As for this daylight savings bullshit. I don't mind it so much in the morning. I'm an early riser and it's nice to be able get up and make coffee with the sunrise as opposed to pitch dark. What I really hate about it are the evenings, which will consume the afternoons. Tonight the sun will set behind the mountain around 4:15 and come December it will be darkening around 3:30. I really fucking hate that.
Now, just few words about this goddamn grocery strike. Enough already! Figure it out! I hate Stater Bros. with a passion. It's the worst store I have ever had to shop at. I'm brand loyal and they don't carry 1/2 the stuff I normally buy. The store is just weird. Nothing makes sense in the layout. One half of the store goes East/West the other North/South. And it seems that you randomly place display obstacles or restocking pallets around every other corner. This makes shopping during a strike, when your customer numbers have tripled - and we're all racing around to get out of your pit of a store as quick as we can, a lot like playing Frogger. To the Brothers Stater I say "You suck."
I'm pro union but damn if they didn't pick a shitty time to do this. The strikers are seriously getting screwed. They're going on strike pay right before the holidays... Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Union Boss will still be able to afford a turkey but most of these folks who have been standing out in +100º all day long for 2+ weeks now are getting fucked. Royally. So to the powers that be I say... sit your fat asses down at the table and figure it out. I want my goddamn EAS bars!
Posted by MJ at October 26, 2003 08:05 AMWith you all the way on the time-change. There is nothing worse than it being dark so early - this is where my SAD starts.
And I'm also with you on the ash and burn. Natalie and I escaped the Floridian fires of 1998. It was like Schindlers list. Horrendous.
And I too remember 'The Day After'. I had nightmares for months after seeing it.
Posted by: Andy at October 26, 2003 09:21 AMI didn't know they had made-for-tv-movies back in the 50's. You learn something new everyday. ;^)
Posted by: Mopsie at October 26, 2003 09:32 AMHar dee har har... ::swat::
Posted by: MJ at October 26, 2003 11:59 AMI'll pass your comments on the heirs of the Stater Brothers. I quite agree.
A proud supporter of Management
Posted by: southend blabber mouth at October 27, 2003 11:16 AMWell, so far, so good. No smoke yet (I'm in Palm Desert... sorta :))
I really hope they get their stuff together and put down that fire soon. We have family and friends in all those areas who have not been affected yet, but could very well be.
Posted by: Vicki at October 27, 2003 07:36 PMI understand the grocery strike is a complex issue for many. Best to examine the histroy:
Ralphs- Family founded (the Ralphs where from LA in the 20'sSold out twice, and ultimaltely, to Kroger. The original founding family is repopnsile for some of the best healthcare available in the world. Details provided upon reuest.
Vons- Founded by the Von der Ahe family in the nineteen teens. Sold to Safeway in the 90's. Family trusts provided LA with the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angles... Anchor to Downtown LA and enabling factor to Disney Hall, a Frank Gheary structure that puts LA on the MAP once again, from so many perspectives....
Market Basket- Long gone and aquired by Alpha Beta.
Alpha Beta- Amazing vission with bad legal advide. Sold to Kroger (via Raphs in the 70s).
Family in a legal squable with trustees.
Jensens's- Niche market origianlly founded in the 1950's, with the chain serving Lake Arowhead and their established clientelle, still family owned, no union. Since expanded to Running Springs, Big Bear, the Coahella Valley and beyond.
Srater Brothers-Established in Orange County CA in the 50's by the Stater Brother's in Costa Mesa CA. Since relocated to LA County, but still family owned....
The supermarket concept originaed in LA at the turn of the the 19th century. For you blow ins from the east, recognize that while SF touts itself as a tony hghbrow town today, its origins were in mining, whiskey and making native americans and chineee imagrants slaves in the 1800's. LA was well established as a diverse cultural center of the West Coast, with significant influence and history behind it while SF was a town full of gin mills and brothels.
Funny how the origins of this region are no longer family owned. They learned in the 1950's that organized labour was their demise. They sold when it was advantageous, and vissionaries they were... Walmart and Bentonville AK was a nit on a knia then.
Read the fine details of Management vs. Union and tell me you don't agree. Union lives in some sort of an insulated bubble, indicating their disgust with health care costs. HOW MUCH DO YOU PAY FOR HEALTHCARE? The prolem is health care costs, which are not exclusive to supermarket companies.
The union's demonstarted their non-sentient feelings once agin. Strike before the Holidays.
PS Don't like Stater's??? They got in the business before labour organized at the then primary LA markets... OC was a farm town, but they negotied their own deal and still receive real pay through this fiasco engineered by several forces.
Any market formed after the 50's is in DS.
Odd that the origianl deal was that union struck Von's exclusively. Ralph's and Albertsons (American Stores and Albertsons of Boise, ID)told their Union employees they're locked out due to their actions...
Wouldn't you?
Hey Coyote, thanks for the history lesson on the fascinating LA supermarket scene. I feel enriched. What got into you at 2AM? Dipping into the medicine cabinet again buddy? Smooch.
Posted by: MJ at October 28, 2003 09:22 AMThis was emotion enduced. There is no worse catalist for my itnesity than emotion.
p.s. 2AM is a great time to do confernce calls with Europe
Love ya
Posted by: big issues at October 28, 2003 11:13 AMWell let me see how i want to put this. I've been in the grocery business for 35 years or so and have seen first hand the greed of these grocery companies. they have long since profited on the backs of the average clerks by writing thin labor schedules, and if someone calls in sick they could care less about replacing the help. If this strike means the end of unions as we know it and these companies want to pay people 10 dollars an hour to work, wait till these new people see what they have to do day in and day out for that kind of money and the company see what kind of work they get from these new hires..., they wont last long at all.. THERE ARE VERY FEW PEOPLE THAT can do this type of backbreaking grocery work and still keep a smile on there face day after day. hey has anyone noticed that 65-75 an hour BOLONNA at your local auto shop where you "sometimes" get your car worked on. come on with 3/4 of all grocery clerks part time who are we really screwing here. granted the Union has not really done there part either as they have never allowed a exit stradigy for old timer to get out and make way for the younger to come in. yes we clerks i'm afraid will have to share in the burden of rising health cost but let's not mess with the heads of the retired clerks who "BY THE GRACE OF GOD" were able to retire in one piece from this industy. also pay us out of the trust fund before these bumbling idiots lose our money and we have nothing like the steel workers. shame on you grocery companies for the way you act.
Posted by: THOMAS HENDERSON at November 21, 2003 09:02 AM
