Latest news with #Stop&Shop
Atlantic
17 hours ago
- Business
- Atlantic
Why Zohran Mamdani Is Unlikely to Make Groceries Cheaper
Can the city of New York sell groceries more cheaply than the private sector? The mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani thinks so. He wants to start five city-owned stores that will be 'focused on keeping prices low' rather than making a profit—what he calls a 'public option' for groceries. His proposal calls for opening stores on city land so that they can forgo paying rent or property taxes. Skeptics have focused on economic obstacles to the plan. Grocers have industry expertise that New York City lacks; they benefit from scale; and they run on thin profit margins, estimated at just 1 to 3 percent, leaving little room for additional savings. Less discussed, though no less formidable, is a political obstacle for Mamdani: The self-described democratic socialist's promise to lower grocery prices and, more generally, 'lower the cost of living for working class New Yorkers' will be undermined by other policies that he or his coalition favors that would raise costs. No one should trust that 'there's far more efficiency to be had in our public sector,' as he says of his grocery-store proposal, until he explains how he would resolve those conflicts. Mamdani's desire to reduce grocery prices for New Yorkers is undercut most glaringly by the labor policies that he champions. Labor is the largest fixed cost for grocery stores. Right now grocery-store chains with lots of New York locations, such as Stop & Shop and Key Food, advertise entry-level positions at or near the city's minimum wage of $16.50 an hour. Mamdani has proposed to almost double the minimum wage in New York City to $30 an hour by 2030; after that, additional increases would be indexed to inflation or productivity growth, whichever is higher. Perhaps existing grocery workers are underpaid; perhaps workers at city-run stores should make $30 an hour too. Yet a wage increase would all but guarantee more expensive groceries. Voters deserve to know whether he'll prioritize cheaper groceries or better-paid workers. (I wrote to Mamdani's campaign about this trade-off, and others noted below, but got no reply.) In the New York State assembly, Mamdani has co-sponsored legislation to expand family-leave benefits so that they extend to workers who have an abortion, a miscarriage, or a stillbirth. The official platform of the Democratic Socialists of America, which endorsed Mamdani, calls for 'a four-day, 32-hour work week with no reduction in wages or benefits' for all workers. Unions, another source of Mamdani support, regularly lobby for more generous worker benefits. Extending such benefits to grocery-store employees would raise costs that, again, usually get passed on to consumers. Perhaps Mamdani intends to break with his own past stances and members of his coalition, in keeping with his goal of focusing on low prices. But if that's a path that he intends to take, he hasn't said so. City-run grocery stores would purchase massive amounts of food and other consumer goods from wholesalers. New York City already prioritizes goals other than cost-cutting when it procures food for municipal purposes; it signed a pledge in 2021 to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions associated with food that it serves, and Mayor Eric Adams signed executive orders in 2022 that committed the city to considering 'local economies, environmental sustainability, valued workforce, animal welfare, and nutrition' in its food procurement. Such initiatives inevitably raise costs. Mamdani could favor exempting city-run groceries from these kinds of obligations. But would he? Batul Hassan, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America steering committee and a supporter of Mamdani, co-authored an article arguing that city-run stores should procure food from vendors that prioritize a whole host of goods: 'worker dignity and safety, animal welfare, community economic benefit and local sourcing, impacts to the environment, and health and nutrition, including emphasizing culturally appropriate, well-balanced and plant-based diets,' in addition to 'suppliers from marginalized backgrounds and non-corporate supply chains, including small, diversified family farms, immigrants and people of color, new and emerging consumer brands, and farmer and employee owned cooperatives.' If one milk brand is cheaper but has much bigger environmental externalities or is owned by a large corporation, will a city-run store carry it or a pricier but greener, smaller brand? Mamdani has said in the past that he supports the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement, which advocates for boycotting products from Israel. That probably wouldn't raise costs much by itself. And Mamdani told Politico in April that BDS wouldn't be his focus as mayor. But a general practice of avoiding goods because of their national origin, or a labor dispute between a supplier and its workers, or any number of other controversies, could raise costs. When asked about BDS in the Politico interview, Mamdani also said, 'We have to use every tool that is at people's disposal to ensure that equality is not simply a hope, but a reality.' Would Mamdani prioritize low prices in all cases or sometimes prioritize the power of boycotts or related pressure tactics to effect social change? Again, he should clarify how he would resolve such trade-offs. Finally, shoplifting has surged in New York in recent years. Many privately owned grocery stores hire security guards, use video surveillance, call police on shoplifters, and urge that shoplifters be prosecuted. Democratic socialists generally favor less policing and surveilling. If the security strategy that's best for the bottom line comes into conflict with progressive values, what will Mamdani prioritize? This problem isn't unique to Mamdani. Officials in progressive jurisdictions across the country have added to the cost of public-sector initiatives by imposing what The New York Times 's Ezra Klein has characterized as an 'avalanche of well-meaning rules and standards.' For example, many progressives say they want to fund affordable housing, but rather than focus on minimizing costs per unit to house as many people as possible, they mandate other goals, such as giving locals a lengthy process for comment, prioritizing bids from small or minority-owned businesses, requiring union labor, and instituting project reviews to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Each extra step relates to a real good. But once you add them up, affordability is no longer possible, and fewer people end up housed. Policies that raise costs are not necessarily morally or practically inferior to policies that lower costs; low prices are one good among many. But if the whole point of city-owned grocery stores is to offer lower prices, Mamdani will likely need to jettison other goods that he and his supporters value, and be willing to withstand political pressure from allies. Voters deserve to know how Mamdani will resolve the conflicts that will inevitably arise. So far, he isn't saying.
Boston Globe
03-07-2025
- Boston Globe
‘Only happens in Nantucket.' Mercedes G-Wagon mix-up delivers classic tale
It started when Alex Miccio, 43, lent his green 1985 Mercedes G-Wagon to the aunt and uncle of his longtime college friend , who has a place on the island. The aunt and uncle were visiting for the July Fourth holiday, armed with a 'bunch of supplies' and other friends, Miccio said, while he and his wife were heading home to Weston. Advertisement They parked at the grocery store lot, a short walk from the ferry terminal, and handed the keys to the arriving couple around 4 p.m. He explained to them how it was an older model that could be 'finicky.' About 30 minutes after they boarded, Miccio got a call from his friend's uncle. The car had started fine, but an ignition light on the dashboard that Miccio had mentioned did not go off. 'As long as it's running, you should be all set, no worries,' Miccio reassured them. About an hour later, Miccio texted the couple to see if they had made it to his friend's house. 'It wasn't nearly as hard to drive as you said it was,' the couple said, according to Miccio. Advertisement The next day, Miccio and his wife, Sofia, read a story about a stolen green Mercedes G-Wagon in the Nantucket Current, 'Wow, good thing I decided not to leave the keys in the car, and I handed them to them directly,' Miccio said. 'It might have been our G-Wagon that was taken.' Miccio didn't think about his car again until Tuesday morning, when another friend on the island texted him a picture of it, still in the Stop & Shop parking lot. His friend said he had also seen the car on Monday in the same spot. 'Well, that's weird,' Miccio recalled thinking. He texted his friend's aunt and asked if they had spent the night downtown. She said no, and that the car had been parked in the yard since they arrived at the house. 'It still hasn't dawned on me what's going on,' Miccio said. He mentioned the 'really strange' situation to his wife. 'Oh my God, do you think they took the wrong G-Wagon,' she texted him. 'No way,' Miccio responded. 'There's no way that happened.' That's when they remembered the report of the stolen G-Wagon. Miccio quickly called his friend's aunt to read him the car's license plate. 'I had a pit in my stomach when I made the call,' Miccio said. His fears were realized. The aunt did not read a shortened version of the Lithuanian phrase for 'cheers,' SVKATA, on Miccio's vanity license plate. Sofia had bought Miccio the car last year as a wedding present, and he said he used the license plate to honor her and her family's heritage. Advertisement Miccio realized that while he knew where his car was, someone else didn't. 'What are the chances of that happening,' Miccio thought to himself. Miccio called the police and spoke to a detective who 'had a little chuckle,' he said. The car was brought to the police station and returned to the owners. 'They were very courteous and understanding about the whole situation,' Miccio said of the fellow G-Wagon owners. 'It was just a simple misunderstanding.' Britney Touchette, 25, whose family owns the car, agreed it was an honest mistake. When the car first went missing, the family was shocked, she said. They thought maybe it was hot wired by teenagers who drive cars to the dunes and leave them there. But they biked out to the dunes and found nothing, and panic began to set in as they realized the house keys were also in the car, she said. On Tuesday morning, they called the locksmith. Thankfully, the car was returned without a scratch, she said. The roof was up to protect it from the rain and the keys to Touchette's house were still in the same place. No need to change the locks, she said. 'This is so classic,' she said. 'We were all laughing. This only happens in Nantucket.' Miccio said the two cars are both green and are older models with a fabric top. The main difference is the 1991 car is newer with a recent paint job and a complete restoration with modern amenities, whereas Miccio's car has its 'original' paint job, he said. 'Any questions that they may have had in their mind about, 'Is this the right car?' ... were assuaged by the fact that when they turned the key, the car started right away, no issue,' Miccio said of his friend's family. Advertisement Nantucket is filled with vintage cars, Miccio said, especially G-Wagons. 'Nantucket is a haven for classic vehicles,' Miccio said. 'It's just a bad coincidence that they seemingly were parked near each other. It was just a real luck of the draw.' Angus MacVicar of the Nantucket police department said he has never heard of a mix-up like this in Nantucket but that police 'frequently' receive reports of people taking the wrong car when the keys are left inside the vehicle. While older vehicles sometimes have ignition keys that are the same, the situation was 'highly unlikely,' he said. Touchette said she and her family have since bought multiple air tags for their car. Miccio said he would be 'more careful' when he identifies his car to people. 'I'm heading back there for the weekend, and I'm sure we're gonna have a really big laugh about it when I see them,' Miccio said of his friend and the aunt and uncle. Ava Berger can be reached at
USA Today
30-06-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Amazon, Stop & Shop warehouse workers testify to 'unsafe' conditions
Companies like Amazon and Stop & Shop, plus the services they provide, are hallmarks of modern living for customers globally. Stop & Shop offers grocery items galore and delivery service; Amazon's exhaustive product offering makes for a one-stop-shop depot. But the warehouse labor to make these popular amenities possible often receives fewer acknowledgments in the mainstream. On June 18, a panel of former and current Amazon and Stop & Shop warehouse employees who are members of the Teamsters Local 25 Union in Boston testified at the Massachusetts Statehouse during a hearing for the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development. Two major pieces of legislation, the Extreme Temperature Worker Protection Act and the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, are up for deliberation in the state's House and Senate. If passed, these bills will install stringent new measures that will force employers to comply with regulations designed to make work a safer and more comfortable environment. Teamsters president Thomas Mari also testified at the Statehouse, sharing remarks that criticized 'unfair' quotas and 'unsafe' working conditions that he alleged warehouse workers are subjected to. He added that the Legislature would 'address the immediate need' to improve workplace conditions at large, sophisticated companies, where employees have experienced injury at high rates when compared to the private sector, he said. Stop & Shop employee says prolonged cold takes a toll Luis Andrade has worked for the Stop & Shop distribution center in Freetown for 16 years. His job is to organize incoming shipments of produce on ice in a cooler that he says is set between 32 and 34 degrees. In an interview with The Herald News, part of the USA TODAY Network, he said Stop & Shop provides employees with a $300 stipend at the start of every year. He spends $200 on boots that will lock out the chill and provide traction while bending, lifting and twisting. The other $100 is spent on 'a good jacket,' he said, but he shared that insulated jackets warm enough for the job usually run closer to $200. Amazon Prime benefits: More rural communities to get same-day, next-day Amazon delivery. See where Wet gloves can be exchanged for a dry pair, but for every new pair, $5 will be deducted from his paycheck. Andrade says he requires a new pair every week. 'That's $5 for 52 weeks,' he said, estimating that he spends upwards of $600 to $700 each year on gear. 'The only way to warm up your hands, you have to go to the bathroom,' he said, which cuts into his time moving orders. 'You feel the pain on your body and the heavy lifting. I've worked with thousands of people. It's not for everybody,' Andrade said. Stop & Shop invests in employee wellness while keeping with FDA regs Jennifer Barr, a spokeswoman for Stop & Shop, said in a statement that the company 'takes a number of precautions to help ensure the safety and wellbeing of our distribution center associates.' She said perishable items like produce, and meat, must be maintained at specific temperatures 'in accordance with FDA requirements to ensure the safety and high quality of our products.' Barr stated that less than 1% of the perishable product in the facility is considered "wet," or packed on ice. Though she acknowledged the $300 stipend, she added that employees get three breaks throughout the day, and at the Freetown facility, there are two full-time associates on-site to mitigate safety risks. Physical therapy training, assistance and care is offered to employees, Barr said, and the company has invested in new 'exoskeleton suits' for added employee protection from the elements. Andrade maintained he wishes the company could 'give you more' — boots, gear money, free gloves. 'Everybody wants to work in a safe environment,' he said. A former employee recalls urgency, not advocacy, at an Amazon center All of Amazon's fulfillment centers are climate-controlled and have internal systems that measure the heat index in the building, said Sam Stephenson, a spokesman for Amazon. 'We're proud that our heat mitigation practices are industry-leading — we meet all state requirements and federal guidance, and in many ways, go above and beyond them,' Stephenson said. Former Amazon employee Max Cardone publicly accused the Revere-based warehouse of maintaining extreme temperatures that, he said, caused employees to faint and warranted ambulatory care during his three years with the company. In response, Stephenson noted that there are 'more than a dozen water fountains in the [Revere] building and we provide water bottles to employees to make staying hydrated even easier for them.' Cardone previously stated that water was unavailable, and only after employees petitioned for it were cases delivered. 'Workplace conditions were subpar, to say the least,' he said in remarks to state senators and representatives present at the hearing. While Cardone described 120- to 150-packages daily quotas and other safety gear being 'gate-kept' or reserved for top performers. Stephenson stated for the record that 'gear is provided to any employee working outdoors. The safety of our employees is our top priority,' and debunked the misconception that Amazon observes fixed quotas. 'We do not. Like any business, we have performance expectations for our teams, but these expectations are based on multiple factors, including the performance of the entire team, sitewide,' Stephenson said. Last year, California fined Amazon $5.9 million for 59,000 violations of the state's quota law at two warehouses. New York, Rhode Island and Connecticut have followed suit by drafting legislation to protect warehouse workers or curtail quotas, Mari maintained. During the hearing, Cardone lodged accusations that 10- or 15-minute breaks recommended with heat index warnings 'were ignored,' he said. But Stephenson maintained that employees are 'encouraged to take a preventive cool-down rest break anytime they need to do so.'
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Yahoo
Man caught shortly after robbing bank in East Haven
EAST HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — A man was apprehended moments after he robbed a local bank in East Haven on Friday afternoon, said police. Kevin Curran, 52, of New Haven, went to the M&T Bank located inside the Stop & Shop grocery store on 370 Hemingway Avenue at around 3:23 p.m. According to a bank staff member, Curran, wearing a blue surgical mask and black winter hat, approached the teller and handed over a handwritten note demanding cash. Son dead, father injured after bank robbery turned barricade incident at Super 8 in Groton Curran did not display a weapon, but made a threat by saying, 'I don't want you to get hurt,' shared police. Curran fled the scene with $1,800. Curran was later spotted walking northbound on High Street after police broadcasted his description. When apprehended, Curran had a bag of clothes and other items matching the initial suspect description, cash, a handwritten note, and several knives, according to East Haven police. Curran is being held on a $150,000 bond and is charged with: Robbery in the second degree Larceny in the first-degree Threatening in the second-degree Breach of peace in the second-degree He will appear at New Haven Superior Court on June 25. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Yahoo
4 people charged in connection to Fairfield street takeover
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (WTNH) — Four people were arrested in connection with a street takeover that happened last month at a Stop & Shop parking lot in Fairfield, according to police. The alleged takeover happened on May 2, around 10:55 p.m., at Villa Avenue. Police said the scene, which resembled a street takeover, had drivers performing donuts, burnouts, and fishtails. Kent Mawhinney, charged in Jennifer Farber Dulos case, to appear in court Police also said that before they arrived, the parking lot asphalt was set on fire. When authorities arrived, the crowd quickly dispersed, and police collected evidence. They also said they used social media, dash cam footage and corroborated with other police departments. After police obtained an arrest warrant, they said they seized a blue Dodge Charger Daytona, a GMC Sierra pickup truck, and a white Ford Mustang GT. Each of the vehicles belonged to an alleged suspect. David Romero, 20, of East Windsor, was charged with illegal racing on highway, conspiracy to commit illegal racing on a highway, reckless endangerment 1st degree, breach of peace, riot 2nd degree, unlawful assembly, reckless driving, failure to display plates, operation causing unnecessary noise and unsafe movement of stopped vehicle. Dilmar Ruano-Barrera, 26, of Stamford, was charged with Illegal racing on a highway, conspiracy to commit illegal racing on a highway, reckless endangerment 1st degree, breach of peace, riot 2nd degree, unlawful assembly, reckless driving, operating a motor vehicle creating unnecessary noise, unsafe movement from a stopped position. Christopher McGirl, 20, of Wallingford, was charged with illegal racing on the highway. The mother of one offender interfered with Fairfield officers and charged Wanda Romer, 49, of East Windsor with tampering with physical evidence and interfering with a police investigation. All of the suspects are scheduled to appear in court on Friday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
