Grocery Update #52: The Pushback.
Farmers, Farmworkers And Grocery Clerks Rising Up. Is Southern Glazer's Overcharging Indie Retailers? And Instacart's 75 Hottest Brands.
Discontents: 1. Food Policy Resources. 2.&3. Sustainable Farmers and Organic Trade Groups Push Back. 4. Grocery Workers Rising Contract Campaign. 5. Washington Farmworkers Defend Overtime Law. 6. UFW FTW in New York State. 7. Is Southern Glazer’s Charging Independent Stores Up to 67% More? 8. Instacart’s 75 Hottest Brands. 9. Tunes.
1. Food Policy Resources.
Food and Water Watch has thrown down the gauntlet on the RFK confirmation. The respected food systems advocacy organization has listed out policy priorities to actually make America healthy again, including stopping bird flu, ending the GRAS loophole, banning harmful food additives, regulating factory farms, tightening up food labeling, banning junk food marketing to kids, protecting farmworkers, and a few other really common sense, low hanging fruit policies that align well with what Environmental Working Group and others have been pushing for years. It was the Democrat’s failure to do these things that opened the door for this bizzaro-world alignment of Trump, RFK and the #MAHA movement.
Meanwhile, LISA HELD and Civil Eats are doing some great work covering the impact of the Trump/Musk junta on food and farming. There are already many federal programs being gutted, programs that are very much in line with making Americans healthy. Not to mention the thousands of civil servants from agencies such as Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, USDA, NOAA, National Parks, FAA, NIH and Bureau of Land Management being fired for no sensible reason, like these agencies had been acquired by distressed debt private equity vultures who are now stripping them for parts. Vulture capitalism comes home to roost in D.C. In order to implement their policies, #MAHA will need federal agencies, staff and a lot of funding. And yet, here we are. As Chuck D says, don’t believe the hype.
And Civil Eats also has an incredible food policy tracker, so we recommend bookmarking it to stay in touch with reality and avoid both hype and hysteria.
Support Civil Eats here. Support FWW here.
2. National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Pushes Back on Federal Funding Freeze.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) organized more than 130 farmers, ranchers, and community advocates to call for urgent action on Capitol Hill around the ongoing federal funding freeze and critical farm bill and appropriations priorities.
The Coalition is calling on members of Congress to:
Act to ensure USDA honors its legal obligations and releases payments to farmers and organizations on signed contracts without delay to avoid causing any further impacts to farmers and the organizations that work with them.
Enact swift passage of a fiscal year (FY) 25 spending bill that sustains funding for critical sustainable agriculture programs.
Develop a new, comprehensive, and bipartisan farm bill that addresses Coalition priorities to advance conservation, reform the farm safety net, build resilient food and farm systems, and much more.
3. Organic Trade Association Pushes Back on Federal Funding Freeze.
The Organic Trade Association (OTA) and its members are deeply concerned with the January 27th OMB memorandum on the “Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs” and any associated communication post-recissions of the broad freezing of funds for already obligated federal grants. Many farms and businesses have already spent dollars and are awaiting reimbursement from these government programs. Farm businesses and organizations have made financial decisions, signed contracts, and otherwise obligated themselves and exposed themselves to financial risk based on the belief that they had a legal and binding agreement with the federal government. Funds must be dispersed for any grants or contracts that have already been executed with American businesses.
A pause for any length of would be extremely challenging and disrupt investments for American farms, rural communities, and businesses. OTA is urging Congress to work with the administration to quickly resolve the confusion and broad blanketing of such important investments in American agriculture.
4. Grocery Workers Are Rising Up For A Fair Contract.
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) bargaining team, representing over 50,000 grocery workers in California, have started negotiations with Kroger and Albertsons, two of the nation’s largest grocery chains. As part of the Grocery Workers Rising campaign, workers are fighting for improvements that ensure better conditions for employees and a positive shopping experience for customers.
With their contracts expiring in early March, thousands of hard-working grocery employees across Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions, Stater Bros., Gelsons, and Super A are uniting and rising up to demand fair contracts.
In 2022, workers secured a contract that led the nation in wage increases and expanded hours. However, rising costs of housing, food, and gas have eroded those gains, leaving many workers struggling to afford basic necessities despite their critical role in the food industry.
While these employees have worked tirelessly, contributing to the companies’ massive profits, corporations have prioritized massive payouts to CEOs and shareholders instead of reinvesting into stores or employees.
Grocery workers are rising up to demand living wages, affordable healthcare, reliable pensions, and improved staffing levels and working conditions.
The Grocery Workers Rising campaign recently launched its website, (http://www.groceryworkersrising.org), and social media accounts to amplify their efforts.
Seven UFCW Locals represent over 50,000 hard-working members at Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions, Stater Bros., Gelson’s and Super A, forming the largest union grocery contract in the nation. The contracts, set to expire on March 2nd cover UFCW Locals 8GS, 135, 324, 770, 1167, 1428, and 1442, spanning from central California to the U.S.-Mexico border.
5. Washington Farmworkers Defend Farmworker Overtime Laws.
Washington State has one of the nation’s leading overtime laws for farmworkers. Farmworkers have been historically excluded from labor laws. Special interests are trying to weaken it and turn back the clock.
Farmworkers are asking: Take action to oppose WA HB 1597/SB 5487.
(Photo by Liz Darrow, C2C)
By Rosalinda Guillen, Community To Community: The law did not backfire on farmworkers, the overtime law is good, the employers have taken a political and greedy position against their own skilled workers and have betrayed a social contract between farmworkers and their communities.
This opposition to overtime pay for WA State farmworkers is all about profit and greed and the industry's yearning for a workforce as close to slavery as they can get.
We ask that all good people that eat, that care for our food systems, to call their Representatives and ask that they oppose HB 1597/SB 5487.
About Community 2 Community: At C2C we strive to develop projects that come from and are led by the folks from communities that need to affect change for improving the lives of their families and future generations. We work to identify common goals and actions among people from marginalized communities and those that believe in sustainability with social justice as a way of life.
6. United Farm Workers Secures First Contract In New York.
United Farm Workers, the California-based union co-created by Cesar Chavez, secured its first contract in New York Thursday after years of organizing and amid a major legal battle.
UFW secured a three-year deal for agricultural workers at Cahoon Farms in Wolcott after the union was certified in December 2022. The contract guarantees covered workers pay above the federal minimums, safety equipment, a grievance process, seniority protections, Just Cause for discipline and firings, and maintenance of existing benefits, among other terms, according to the union’s summary. It also includes a retirement plan, paid holidays, and guaranteed time off for vacations, sickness, and funerals. The contract covers both permanent workers and workers on H-2A visas.
UFW has been certified at eight locations across New York, including Golden Harvest Apple Farm in Columbia County, where it was certified Jan. 17. Closer to Rochester, the union is trying to reach three contracts: at A & J Kirby Farms in Albion, Cherry Lawn Fruit Farms in Sodus, and Wafler Farms, which is also in Wolcott. More farms could join the mix.
7. FTC: Southern Glazer’s Charges Independent Stores Up to 67% More Than Chain Retailers.
By Ferron Salniker, BevNet
Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits (SGWS) has consistently charged independent retailers as much as 12% to 67% more than national and regional chains for the same products, according to newly unsealed redactions in the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) price discrimination case against the distributor.
The new information was revealed after SGWS, one of the country’s largest wine and spirits distributors, made a bid last month to permanently seal portions of the FTC’s complaint over concerns about disclosing confidential information. The FTC responded to that motion by filing a less redacted version of the complaint on Monday in the U.S. District Court for Central California.
The original complaint, filed in December, invokes the little-used Robinson-Patman Act of 1936, which bars larger suppliers from influencing prices in order to undercut smaller retailers. The lawsuit was one of the last in a series of Biden administration lawsuits through the FTC that attempt to level the playing field for small retailers and reduce the impact of high food and beverage prices on consumers.
The FTC alleged that SGWS sells wine and spirits to small, independent “mom and pop” businesses at prices that are “drastically higher than what Southern charges large chains — with dramatic price differences that provide insurmountable advantages that far exceed any real cost efficiencies for the same bottles of wine and spirits.”
Those price differences include SGWS routinely charging small, independent retailers “as much as 12% to 67% more for the same bottles of certain wine and spirits than national and regional chains in the exact same geographic area,” read the unsealed redactions. Those independent retailers include neighborhood grocery stores, local convenience stores and independently owned wine and spirits shops.
Price discrimination involved substantial price differences between competing retailers “in millions of transactions over multiple months and years,” according to the complaint, and in certain transactions, “disfavored independent retailers paid as much as 32% to 78% more than competing favored retailers.”
A statement from SGWS on Tuesday said the distributor offers “different levels of discounts based on the cost we incur to sell different quantities to customers and make all discount levels available to all eligible retailers, including chain stores and small businesses alike.”
But the FTC alleges that the pricing differentials between favored and disfavored retailers exceed any cost savings achieved by SGWS when selling and delivering wine and spirits to the favored national chains.
Complaint Details Alleged Advantages for Chains.
As for mechanics, a favored chain retailer is profiled, according to the complaint, into categories, and receives the price for products associated with its profile, regardless of how many cases of a given product it purchases. SGWS’ chain customers also often purchase products from the wholesaler’s own proprietary systems or third-party applications, according to the complaint, allowing large chain retailers to “view secret prices, promotions, and discounts, and place direct orders with Southern.”
In other instances, the complaint alleges favored chain retailers are advised months in advance of a particular deal that, for all other customers, is only active for a very short window, making it unlikely an independent retailer would become aware of the deal through Proof, the distributor’s online purchasing system, or a sales representative. The largest quantity deals often are not displayed on Proof, the complaint alleges.
In some instances, SGWS “solicits and accepts money or ‘discount support’ funding from suppliers in return for providing discriminatory pricing that is accessible only to favored large chain retailers,” the complaint reads. “This money or funding is not associated with any efficiency derived from the differing methods or quantities in which the wine or spirits are manufactured, sold, or delivered to the favored large chains.”
These acts of price discrimination are part of the norm for the distributor, alleges the FTC, and unredacted instances show examples of employees allegedly structuring multi-supplier deals and secret specials for large retailers that were withheld from small businesses.
Other examples include an instance in California in 2019 when a large chain was able to sell a product to customers at a price that independent retailers could not even buy the product from SGWS. Further evidence cited includes SGWS’ sales invoice data showing that independent retailers in certain states paid materially higher prices than nearby chain retailers for the exact same products in the vast majority of transactions.
SGWS has responded to the complaint by arguing that it “takes issue with the use of volume discounts that Southern Glazer’s — and nearly every distributor of consumer products in the country — uses to lower customers’ costs and enable consumers to pay lower prices for the everyday goods they need.”
8. Instacart’s Top 75 Fastest Growing Brands.
Instacart has released a list of the top 75 fastest growing brands on its platform. Over 1500 retailers with over 85,000 doors use Instacart, including Aldi, Wegman’s, Kroger, Publix and Food Lion. It’s a pretty compelling list. Some of my personal faves on here include Roots frozen sides, Aloha Bars, Liquid Death seltzers and Seven Sundays cereal.
9. Tunes.
This week is led off by Marcia Griffiths, the Queen of Reggae.
peace.