464A News

May 7, 2008 - — A&P has announced a new “price impact” prototype to be introduced in May at two Pathmark locations in New Jersey. Pathmark stores in Edison and Irvington will be the first to display the format which will emphasize a low-price but still offer more than 20,000 SKUs. A&P acquired Pathmark last year and recently completed its financial integration. Company officials indicate that with the introduction of the price impact model, A&P now has designs that will enable it to compete in all sectors of the retail food market.

May 2, 2008 - Consumers are stockpiling foods as prices continue to rise. Published reports have cited ten box purchases of breakfast cereals and hundred dollar single purchases of canned soups and frozen vegetables when on sale. Another practice last seen in the 1970s, finds whole neighborhoods pooling money to make bulk purchases of meats and then sharing the cost of storage.
At the root of these purchase behaviors is the fast rising prices of food not only in the U.S., but also worldwide. Prices are expected to continue rising for the foreseeable future. See chart:

April 18, 2008 - Stanley Painter, Chairman of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Local Unions stated that the recent massive U. S. beef recall, prompted by Humane Society video of the dragging of a “downer” cow to slaughter, is not a new or isolated incident of meat processing plants failing to follow regulations. He told the domestic policy panel of the U. S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that there are simply not enough field inspectors to do the job.

April 11, 2008 - Governor John Corzine signed legislation on May 2, 2008 granting employees up to six weeks off with pay to care for a new child or a sick spouse, child or parent. The Governor had publicly supported this paid family leave program as it was debated in the Assembly. New jersey now becomes the third state in the nation to create this type of a program for workers. The law will benefit Local 464A members in New Jersey by granting six weeks of leave at reduced pay to workers who elect to stay home to care for a new child or a sick relative.
The details of the paid family leave act (A873) are:

April 1, 2008 - The cost of a dozen large eggs is up 24% and the price of a gallon of milk has climbed 26% between February 2007 and the same period in 2006. These are only two components of overall food costs that have seen their biggest rise in 17 years. Among the reasons given are the monumental increases in commodity costs for wheat, corn and soybeans. These increases are being driven by climbing overseas consumer demand together with expanding U.S. based alternative uses of some commodities such as corn, for ethanol in energy fuels.

March 28, 2008 -

March 17, 2008 - The National Realty and Development Corp. of Purchase, NY has notified Ramapo officials that it has decided to cease its two year effort to gain approval for the construction of a super sized Wal-Mart in the town’s Monsey section. While the notification, sent by facsimile, gave no explanation for the developer’s decision it is believed that broad opposition to the project among local unions, politicians and the area’s Orthodox Jewish population rendered the approval for the project unlikely.

March 11, 2008 - Following the announcement of improved financial performance during the fiscal third quarter, A&P executives stated that the integration of Pathmark which it purchased on December 3, was "on-track". The executives said that many Pathmark stores were to be re-modeled and a new combined private label program would be put in place during the fiscal 1st quarter of 2008. They also said that a "re-fresh" initiative will be implemented to enhance the Pathmark fresh departments and two more stores similar to the Park Ridge, NJ fresh prototype will be opened.

March 11, 2008 - Gristedes and Wakefern Food Corp. have entered into a wholesale agreement that will result in selected ShopRite branded private label items appearing on Gristedes shelves. Items included in the agreement are organic products, health and beauty care products and imported specialty items. Gristedes operates well-known stores in the New York Metropolitan area including Manhattan, Westchester County and Long Island. Wakefern is the largest cooperative in the U.S. supporting more than 200 independently owned ShopRite stores in the mid-Atlantic region.

March 3, 2008 - General Mills is recalling 35,000 cases of its Progresso Italian Wedding soup and Nestle SA of Switzerland is recalling selected boxes of its popular Hot Pockets brand. Both recalls are a result of the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing scandal that has caused the largest recall of meat in U.S. history - 143 million pounds of beef. The Soup and Hot Pockets are believed to contain some of the recalled beef.