Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Coming Soon To a City Near You ?

Some people pride themselves on being good at giving away other people’s money. For some reason unbeknownst  to me, a lot of these individuals seem to gravitate into politics, at least here in Southern California. These politicians just do not seem to understand that those businesses whose money is being given away are not enthusiastic when politicians try to gain political points by giving away some of the hard earned profits of their business. This is especially true when profit margins are slim. 

So of course, in an attempt to make people like them, (and by the way, continue to vote for them), these pols make very questionable decisions that can hurt the very ones that they are naively attempting to help. 

In Long Beach, California, in January, the City Council unanimously decided that those who work in grocery stores will be given “hero pay” of an additional $4.00 per hour for four months. The Democrat mayor of Long Beach then signed this money giveaway mandate. The response was an anticipated one . . .  two Kroger grocery stores in Long Beach subsequently closed.

As would expected, not to be outdone, the Los Angeles City Council decided that they should do the same thing, namely give “hero pay” of an additional $4.00 per hour to their grocery store workers. Keep in mind that this money was not money that belonged to the Los Angeles City Council, but rather was money that belonged to the various grocery stores.

So in L.A what do you think happened next? Right! Two Ralphs stores and one Food 4 Less, both of which are owned by Kroger, will shut down in May, joining the other two Kroger locations that closed after a $4 hero pay hike was mandated in Long Beach.

From Townhall, in a news release Kroger said:

“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.”

Kroger continued, “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.”

(A total of 289 associates at the three L.A. stores will be affected by the upcoming May 15 closures, Kroger told the Washington Examiner.)

So let’s get this straight . . . “those Democrats on the City Councils of both Long Beach and Los Angeles (“those that think that know best”) are seemingly astounded that Kroger Foods wasn’t happy that their slim profits were being given away. As a consequence of the ineptitude and shortsightedness of those City Councils, many of those who had worked in these now closed stores in Long Beach, and in those soon to be closed L.A. stores will lose their jobs. (A total of 289 associates at the three L.A. stores will be affected by the May 15 closures, Kroger told the Washington Examiner.)

According to the LA Times, there was only one supervisor who voted against the measure, predicting what would happen if the temporary pay hike was implemented. 

“I would hate to think we’re driving [out of business] the very businesses we fought so hard to locate in unincorporated areas, many of which are working-class neighborhoods,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger. 

Ms. Barger was indeed right on!

Be forewarned. This same sort of inept inane thinking could well be coming soon to a Democratic city near you. If you live in a city with a Democrat City Council, perhaps you should stock up on some groceries now.

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