Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Whole Foods workers seek to unionize

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 415 posts

Re: Whole Foods workers seek to unionize

#201

Post by LaikaF »

imagiko wrote: post #38

I have noticed that the cashier's have gotten pushy about asking about a Prime account, and very recently about a charity donation. It's a good way to 'make' people donate when asked upfront. I'm sure the probability of people donating increases. When I denied, I was asked if I'd like to round off my payment and have the balance donated. Honestly, it's very annoying. Whole foods is unfortunately becoming an REI store…

I worked there as a cashier.

You got tested on this.

Prime account is just the replacement for their rewards program. For the month of... may? The old one who stopped and the prime one hadn't started. This made some customers mad.

Plus it's a lot easier if you're basically running off a script to do the eight hours of repetition.

Re: Whole Foods workers seek to unionize

#202

Post by [deleted] »

biztos wrote: post #193

All my experience shopping at grocery chains in the US and elsewhere has impressed upon me that these workers represent the absolute classic, textbook case for unionization. Yes, including Whole Paycheck[0] as well as Trader Joe's and Safeway and Von's and everybody else. While I can imagine Amazon having a loathing of unions, if they really want to be in this space they will sooner or later have to contend with the…

[deleted]

Re: Whole Foods workers seek to unionize

#203

Post by asntbqjkwbucaa »

gardnr wrote: post #176
asntbqjkwbucaa wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always assumed the reason was to generate $XXX million in donations for a tax deduction for the grocery store chain.

I'm not a tax attorney but I don't think that's how deductions work.

Do you mind explaining more?

I was under the impression that a corporation can take a tax deduction for charitable donations. There's a line item for it on Form 1120 (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1120.pdf)

Re: Whole Foods workers seek to unionize

#204

Post by mkopinsky »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #139
imagiko wrote: post #38

I have noticed that the cashier's have gotten pushy about asking about a Prime account, and very recently about a charity donation. It's a good way to 'make' people donate when asked upfront. I'm sure the probability of people donating increases. When I denied, I was asked if I'd like to round off my payment and have the balance donated. Honestly, it's very annoying. Whole foods is unfortunately becoming an REI store…

I quit donating to charity after I found out that Red Cross only gives a small fraction of its donations to charity the rest is spent on Administration costs. Just like colleges and the healthcare industry. Got to pay all those vp's of vp's of vp's.

That's a good reason not to donate to the red cross. There are other organizations out there with extremely high efficiency ratios and noble missions, and you shouldn't let one highly publicized rotten apple poison the rest.

Re: Whole Foods workers seek to unionize

#205

Post by smileysteve »

asntbqjkwbucaa wrote: post #203
gardnr wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a tax attorney but I don't think that's how deductions work.

Do you mind explaining more? I was under the impression that a corporation can take a tax deduction for charitable donations. There's a line item for it on Form 1120 ( https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1120.pdf )

In order to take the tax deduction of an expense to a charity they have to first recognize the income the customer just gave them.

Since the income and the deduction directly offset each other, this is a zero sum maneuver.

Re: Whole Foods workers seek to unionize

#206

Post by vadym909 »

borski wrote: post #82
imagiko wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't you been pushed about getting an REI membership? I think twice before asking any REI salesman for help, because I know they are going to push me to get a membership. They're doing their job since their incentives are tied to memberships to some degree, but it makes for a poor experience. /edit:I'd rather be asked about a membership once at the cashier's than by every sales staff I talk to during my visit.

Oh, I see. To be fair, I signed up and paid $20 for a membership many years ago; it's a one-time fee to never have to worry about saving receipts, which is a massive win for me since I shop there so often, and to get the dividend which inevitably amounts to far more than the one-time $20 charge. So, to be fair, I don't recall being pushed, since it made sense to me, and they wouldn't push me now because I'm already a…

my wife probably signed up sometime- cos when I gave them my phone number they said you have $21 dividend- want to apply it? I was like - wow - I love this place and I don't even shop there a lot. Don't love their prices but I love REI. Too bad the Orchard Supply which is also a CoOp is shutting down.

Re: Whole Foods workers seek to unionize

#207

Post by jdck1326 »

Saavedro wrote: post #136
jdck1326 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>10 hours away Time isn't a very good measure of distance

i mean, if you're talking about how convenient is to shop there it kind of is? Doesn't matter if I'm technically close to a place if I gotta take a long detour to actually arrive.

I guess if you live somewhere where everyone has a car it makes more sense. I forgot I was on an American website for a moment.

Re: Whole Foods workers seek to unionize

#208

Post by jdck1326 »

CydeWeys wrote: post #187
jdck1326 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>10 hours away Time isn't a very good measure of distance

It's the best measure of distance in determining how far away a destination is. Let's say you ask me where a store is, and I tell you it's only 500m away. "Great!", you think, "That's an easy walk!" No, it's not, because it's on the other side of a river, and there isn't a crossing particularly close. You'd much rather go to the store that's 1000m away because it's not across a river. Now you're probably going to say…

I normally just say "it's a twenty minute walk" or "it's a five minute drive"

Re: Whole Foods workers seek to unionize

#209

Post by loosetypes »

asntbqjkwbucaa wrote: post #147
srtjstjsj wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the new trend in many grocery stores. Someone on HN or Reddit mentioned that grocery charities are actually a tactic to estimate the sign of the derivative of e the customer base's grocery-discretionary income, as a hint of when to raise prices.

I always assumed the reason was to generate $XXX million in donations for a tax deduction for the grocery store chain.

It doesn’t work like that with regards to taxing. What they do get is a good PR image at no cost to themselves (many places don’t match any donations[0]). Worse, some even keep a percent in “administrative fees” [1]

And there is concern that these checkout charities are replacing more traditional means of corporate giving, reducing net contributions.

Whether or not they make you feel ambushed, due diligence is worth hope before giving, as some companies (and the non-profits they give to) are more worthy than other.

[0] Such as walgreens. But there are some places, like Costco, that will match customer and employee giving.

[1] Petco

Re: Whole Foods workers seek to unionize

#210

Post by andrewprock »

akudha wrote: post #138
notyourwork wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure this shows things got quickly worse. It may just show Whole Foods employees lost control they used to have but I think you are jumping to conclusions.

Not sure if things have gone bad for employees (not a surprise though), but as a shopper, things have definitely gone bad. Most visible one is empty shelves, which is becoming more and more frequent. Maybe they did some "optimization", doesn't help shoppers though

I went there the other day to buy tomatillos. They didn't have any, so I had to go to Smart and Final.

When Whole Foods can't get produce that Smart and Final can, it tells me that they don't want to carry that produce.

Post reply on HN