KROGER COMPANY : RALPHS UNION EMPLOYEES TOLD TO TELL YOU TO CASHIER YOURSELF OUT!

Friends, we're getting sticker shock when we go grocery shopping at our local Ralphs, which is one of the grocery companies owned by Kroger Company.  We can tell you that we an barely afford our groceries if we try to shop exclusively at Ralphs. 

As a result we are venturing into more ma and pa ethnic groceries, such as an Armenian market we found that shows the source of each vegetable (USA, Mexico, etc.) and meat (CANADA, China), so that we can eat right.

Several years ago employees of Ralphs and some other grocery stores went on strike.  At that time, in order to break the union, some employees of Ralphs worked while providing someone else's social security number and identity for the paychecks to go to.  We understand that some of these people went against the Union because they had rents and mortgages and children to feed, yet...

We were out and about and met a couple people who claimed they had come to town from out of state to work the jobs non-union, to keep the store up and running, who said they were able to rent motel rooms and do this, but later in the news we learned that Ralphs had been caught on the Social Security numbers by the IRS and had to pay a million or more in fines.  We couldn't believe the company was willing to even try that!  Millions of dollars or not, we saw the prices go up to cover the payment.

Now gas prices are killing and the transportation costs are probably part of the increase in prices.  We get the weekly sale sheet and loaded up on Campbells Chunky Soups, which have been on sale for a dollar a can but as much as we loved all but one recipe, we don't think we can afford the $2.69 each that the store has the shelf marked with as the regular price.

The other morning, when there were only two cashiers at their check stands and we were only the second in line, a young woman who may have been a supervisor told the cashier right in front of us that she needed to tell anyone that was waiting to go to the automated check out!

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS ? If we went to the automated we would do the work of a cashier and still pay Ralph's prices.  At first we thought, hey if we are going to do that work, we want a "check yourself out" discount (at Food for Less, which is also owned by Kroger, supposedly the prices are lower because you bag your own groceries).  Then we realized that the cashier had to cooperate in the elimination of her own job.

Think about this!  We grew used to doing our own BANKING through the use of the automated, and as a result we rarely have any relationship between us and the bank in the form of a live person unless we are trying to get a loan.  We have taken over the role of the post office by bill paying on line.  And the only time we call to speak to a live person is when we need to order new service or something goes wrong with the online bill payment. 

We miss the days when you could go to the grocery and tip someone to help you take the groceries to your car and help you load them.  We miss the days when someone working as a cashier could pay their rent, at least with a room mate.  We miss the days when we could actually respond to advertising for new food products by going to the store where we could afford them.

We told the supervisor in front of the cashier that come the day that there are no live persons to check us out at Ralphs will come the day we no longer purchase at Ralphs.