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‘Essential’ Workers At Amazon And Walmart Protest Unsafe Conditions

‘Essential’ Workers At Amazon And Walmart Protest Unsafe Conditions

Reprinted with permission from DCReport

Low-wage earners helping to keep the nation’s top retailers operating during the COVID-19 crisis are balking at the Trump administration’s bid to return to business as usual by Easter.

Frontline retail workers at Amazon and Walmart forced to work without the benefit of face masks, gloves or hand sanitizer are already afraid they are being exposed to COVID-19. They are calling on corporate CEOs to temporarily shutter their workplaces for thorough disinfection.

Earlier this month, Congress exempted large corporations including Walmart and Amazon from legislation mandating businesses provide emergency paid sick and family leave.

“I do understand the need for workers to be in the store in order for people who need medicine; for people who need supplies who have children — but there’s got be something done to help protect us,” 19-year Walmart worker Cyndi Murray told me this week.

‘Walmart hasn’t done anything to protect its employees. I watch people come in and out of our store and I worry what I’m going to do if I get sick.’

“Maybe at a point, shut down — sanitize the registers,” the Hyattsville, Maryland resident added. “Do they realize how many people come into these little self-checkouts? We have 10 registers inside one of our self-checkouts. Do you know how close people are to each other?”

Amazon warehouse worker Monica Moody, 32, told me the coronavirus pandemic has her and her North Carolina co-workers “freaked out.”

Facilities Need Cleaning

“People are probably coming to work sick and not know it,” Moody said. “We all want the same thing — we need to see the facility shut down temporarily, so it can be cleaned. And we need to be paid. Shut down with full pay.”

The last few weeks on the job have been “a blur” for El Paso Walmart employee Sanjuana Arreola.

“Customers have been rushing into the stores to stock up for weeks in isolation — rice, canned goods, and water — I’m scared,” the married mother of three said. “As a Walmart associate, I don’t get to practice social distancing. Walmart hasn’t done anything to protect its employees. I watch people come in and out of our store and I worry what I’m going to do if I get sick.”

Stacy Rowback is a struggling part-time Walmart employee from Upstate New York with a 14-month-old baby girl to care for back at home. The new mom says Walmart has provided the employees where she works with zero training and protection.

Guarding The Toilet Paper

“They’ve not changed anything in my store,” Rowback told me. “The only thing they are doing is guarding toilet paper.”

All the workers quoted above are part of the Paid Leave for All campaign — a broad coalition of organizations urging Congress to pass a stimulus package that closes loopholes exempting both very large enterprises with 500 or more employees and smaller companies with fewer than 50 workers — and extends family sick leave to all American workers.

Forcing People To Work Sick

“Our nation is only as healthy as the most vulnerable among us,” said Wendy Chun-Hoon, executive director of Family Values @ Work and an executive team member of the Paid Leave for All campaign. “We cannot stop a pandemic if we force people to come to work sick. Walmart has gotten away with denying sick leave, artificially keeping [employee] work hours down, for years.”

Despite increasing deaths and more confirmed cases of COVID-19 nationwide — the country’s chief executive, on March 22, sent out a tweet saying, “We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. At the end of the 15 day period, we will make a decision as to which way we want to go!”

Trump has since made further declarations indicating his administration’s eagerness to drop the social distancing Americans have been practicing the last couple of weeks to quell the economic impact of the coronavirus.

“Yeah — no. That’s not gonna work,” Moody said. “You can’t beat this thing without social distancing. If you want to ease back into it and let everybody go back to work — then just be prepared to get right back onto lockdown.”

Neither Walmart or Amazon responded to requests for comment.

‘Sanitize The Registers’

“Shut down,” a frustrated Murray continued. “Sanitize these registers, these keypads where people stick in their debit cards. What about the baskets? Sanitize them.”

According to Moody, three people from the nightshift where she works have already tested positive for COVID-19.

“I understand we’re the frontline and people are depending on us, [but] we’re human, too,” she said. “We need to be safe, too. Shut it down quick for two weeks and I’ll feel a lot safer going to work. I’m not asking for a permanent closing — I’m asking for it to be cleaned and safe for me to go to work.”

At $11.44 an hour, Arreola says she barely earns enough to put food on her table — let alone stock up for an emergency like the patrons who have stripped grocery and drug store shelves across the country.

“We’re making sure Walmart customers have everything they need — but who’s looking out for us?” she said. “We have to do this before it’s too late.”

Joe Maniscalco is a Brooklyn-based journalist who has spent the last decade covering labor unions and workplace justice issues.

Main Street Shopping And The Internet

Main Street Shopping And The Internet

Wal-Mart is seeing the future, and the future isn’t more shoppers driving through stop-and-go traffic to big boxes at the edge of town. It’s online shopping. The giant retailer plans to plunk down a princely $3.3 billion for Jet.com, an e-commerce company. Using the same crystal ball, Macy’s says it will close at least 100 stores, many in malls that have seen better days.

Where does retailing in our city centers and on our Main Streets fit into this story? The answers are not simple.

In the beginning, Americans went downtown to buy everything from hammers to sweaters to footballs. When much of the middle class departed for the suburbs, the retailers followed them. The new shopping venues were big-chain discounters and giant malls. This mass transfer drained the life out of downtown retailing, leaving sad, empty storefronts on architecturally splendid streets.

Nowadays, “the Darwinian thing is going on in suburban retailing that was happening downtown,” Mark Cohen, retailing expert at Columbia Business School, tells me.

Amazon.com is the undisputed king of that jungle. Its online mega-store sells 550 million products. Every year, it takes a bigger bite out of bricks-and-mortar store sales.

Another weight on suburban retailing is a ludicrous overbuilding of retail space. “The developers never saw a highway and exit ramp that they didn’t want to build a mall on,” Cohen quipped.

So what happens next? Many of the fringe developments further down the highway without full tenancy are going to be history, according to retail analysts. Some big boxes, such as Home Depot and Lowe’s, may do OK. Others will not.

On to our downtowns. Whether hopping with activity, on the mend or still ailing, they remain the center for much of our civic life. Downtown is where one finds city or town hall, a main post office, a good library and transportation hubs. The stores are key players in the experience.

Will online shopping hurt Main Street retailing the way it has plagued suburban stores? That all depends on the downtown.

Where there is gentrification — wealthier people moving to urban neighborhoods — there is, of course, retail opportunity. Another advantage for city and town shopping districts is foot traffic, people walking by storefronts.

Take me. I’m one of Amazon Prime’s valued customers. I click away for moth traps and patio lights and color printers that get delivered to my doorstep. I know exactly what a Lego Elves toy is and would not sacrifice a half-hour driving for something I can order online in five minutes.

But shopping does remain a part of the entertainment mix. On Saturday afternoons, folks hang out in nearby shopping districts. The stores there display clothes and housewares more interesting than the commodities at the discounters’. And being seduced by an artful display window could be a byproduct of meeting someone two doors down for coffee.

Many of the most successful retail districts are those that attract tourists, particularly foreign ones. Visiting Asians, Russians and South Americans are known to stuff empty suitcases with stuff bought here. The concern right now is the higher American dollar — plus the threat of another travel-related terrorist attack.

The good news for physical retailers everywhere, Cohen says, is that the internet isn’t likely to take it all. About 15 percent of current retail sales, online shopping could possibly go as high as 40 percent, but that would still leave at least 60 percent.

And so the dreamscape of a bustling Main Street persists. Every now and then, one comes across a surviving family-run sporting goods or shoe store — and salutes. It would be awfully nice to see more of them.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached atfharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

Photo: Mike Kalasnik

U.S. Retailers At Risk Of Missing Modest Holiday Sales Goals

U.S. Retailers At Risk Of Missing Modest Holiday Sales Goals

By Nandita Bose and Kylie Gumpert

CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Retailers are struggling to meet even modest forecasts for the holiday shopping season this year after the “Super Saturday” before Christmas failed to live up to its nickname, industry research groups said.

The last Saturday before Christmas often sets the annual record for retail sales, vying with Thanksgiving weekend’s Black Friday. In recent years, last-minute shopping has determined the success of the season, and a relatively weak final weekend bodes poorly for retailers.

This year Super Saturday weekend sales in stores and online rose 4 percent to $55 billion, after a 2.5 percent gain last year, according to retail consultancy and private-equity fund Customer Growth Partners. That puts overall store and online sales from the start of November through Dec. 22 on track to rise 3.1 percent, below the 3.2 percent pace the firm forecast and down from 4.1 percent growth in the same period last year.

“Sales have been sluggish so far this year as most consumers are still buying close to need,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners. “What’s worse is the marked deceleration from a year ago,” he said.

Last year, last-minute sales gained in the final 10 days of the holiday season, driven by savings from lower gasoline prices. If sales, spurred by gift card redemptions, hold up in the week after Christmas this year, retailers could move closer to meeting performance forecasts, consultants and retail experts said.

The National Retail Federation, the leading industry body, has forecast a 3.7 percent rise in store and online sales this year.

Discounts across categories have been deeper than last year, in the range of 20 percent to 50 percent, said Traci Gregorski, vice president of marketing at analytics firm Market Track. But consultants said the discounting still had not been enough to boost store traffic materially.

Promotions earlier in November took a toll on in-store sales during the Thanksgiving weekend, when total spending was the same as last year, according to the NRF.

The drop in store traffic has been offset to a large extent by online sales. Forrester expects U.S. households to spend $95.5 billion online during the holiday season, up 11 percent over last year. E-commerce accounts for 10 percent of U.S. retail spending annually, but 14 percent of spending during November and December, the company said.

The surge in online sales did not significantly disrupt services this year at delivery companies like United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp, which put firm cut-off dates for gifts to ship in time for Christmas, the companies and consultants said.

Most retailers had little choice but to comply with the cut-off dates.

“We have stopped (free shipping) for orders that promised delivery by Christmas” because of UPS’ cut-off date, said Noelle Sadler, chief marketing officer at online clothing retailer Lulus.

WEAKER TRAFFIC

Analytics firm RetailNext, which tracks specialty stores like Best Buy Co Inc and large retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Target Corp, said sales dropped 6.7 percent over the pre-Christmas weekend compared with a year ago, and store traffic dipped 10.4 percent. However, customers who did hit the stores spent more.

“The jury is still out,” said Bridget Johns, head of customer engagement at RetailNext. “We still have over a week before the season closes but it will surely be a race to the finish line.”

Best-sellers during the holiday season have included toys and home improvement items like appliances, tools, furnishings and home decor.

But apparel sales plummeted as warm weather hurt sales of winter clothing and discounts on electronics hurt retail margins, even as sales volumes in the category remained robust.

(Additional reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Peter Henderson, Eric Effron and Dan Grebler)

Shoppers take part in Black Friday Shopping at a Target store in Chicago, Illinois, United States, November 27, 2015. REUTERS/Jim Young 

 

Millennials Keep Malls Humming

Millennials Keep Malls Humming

By Suzette Parmley, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

PHILADELPHIA — There’s that word again: millennials. They’re influencing politics, entertainment and retail in a huge way.

As a group that still favors going to the mall versus online shopping, millennials not only determine the retail roster, but are also encouraging a wave of foreign retailers to enter the U.S. market.

On any given day, their clout is showcased at King of Prussia, the Philadelphia region’s largest mall, owned by Simon Property Group.

About 38 percent of the mall’s visitors are 18 to 34 — the millennial age range. About 88 percent visit specialty stores, and 57 percent visit department stores on each visit. About two-thirds make a purchase in the food court or dine in a sit-down restaurant, according to statistics tracked by Simon.

Typically, two or more millennials shop together, or with a parent, as Emily Dratch, 20, did recently with her mother, Lara Dratch, 45.

“My mom and I love going to the mall,” said Dratch. “We like trying things on in the dressing rooms and showing each other. It’s a bonding thing.”

The mother-daughter duo did a four-hour shopping spree that included purchases at Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, Vineyard Vines, and Victoria’s Secret. They lunched on cheeseburgers at Ruby’s Diner at the mall in between.

Millennials are now the largest consumer group in the United States. They number 84.4 million, which is why retailers are licking their chops to cater to them.

Whole Foods Market Inc. announced last month that it was rolling out stores geared toward millennials.

Chidi Achara, senior vice president and global creative director at Simon, said some of the best performers with the millennial audience at Simon-owned malls are H&M, Forever 21, and Urban Outfitters.

Retailers H&M from Sweden, Zara from Spain, and Uniqlo from Japan are all going after U.S. millennials. “I like how the clothes fit and they’re not too expensive,” said Boris Ricenti, 20, after buying a tuxedo for his prom last week from H&M Man at another Philadelphia-area mall.

Primark out of Ireland will open eight stores in the United States by the end of 2016. The first store will open in downtown Boston in September, followed by one at King of Prussia in November.

The company relies on a formula that has worked for it in Europe: offering trendy clothes at really low prices.
It does this by scouring Asia for materials and placing huge orders for top-selling items such as socks, tops and jeans. It sells a limited range of sizes to keep overhead costs down.

Meanwhile, Primark’s target U.S. audience keeps growing. The millennials’ “purchasing power is estimated to overtake boomers’ in 2016 as the boomer generation ages and spends less on retail items,” Achara said.

“The demographic size of the millennial generation will overtake boomers in terms of sheer numbers by 2030. They are the future for all brands and retailers,” she added.

Joe Coradino, chief executive officer of Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns eight malls in the region, said he learned his lesson about eight years ago when his daughter, Bethann, was 16.

Back then, he said, Bethann, now 24, told him she didn’t like the look of a certain teen retailer’s storefront at a PREIT mall.

Coradino said he brushed her off, thinking, ‘What do you know? You’re just a kid.’

“Boy, was I wrong,” he said.

The same retailer, Coradino said, ended up closing 100 stores. He said to this day he uses that experience as a point of reference — that he has to listen to the customer, especially when targeting millennials.

That group accounts for 30 percent to 40 percent of customers at PREIT malls. “They are the largest age cohort in America,” Coradino said. “They want to shop, dine, and be entertained.”

He credits them for the infusion of restaurants at malls and the recent influx of international retailers.

The company’s strategy includes having a broader array of stores and amenities at the mall, such as a gym, Wi-Fi, juice bars and Starbucks. “All of these things are tailored to draw” millennials, Coradino said.

Even with the advent of online technology and next-day delivery, studies show millennials still do most of their shopping at brick-and-mortar stores — giving enclosed malls hope.

Melissa Fellenbaum shopped at King of Prussia recently with mother, Crystal. At 25, Fellenbaum is a quintessential millennial whom all malls target. During her visit, she bought tank tops and shorts from Forever 21 and a dress from H&M.

“I like to try things on,” said Fellenbaum. “You can’t tell if they will fit online.”

Another millennial, Rahmir Smith, 27, works at King of Prussia as a cosmetic counter manager at Macy’s. He is also an avid shopper at the mall.

In addition to enjoying the feel of clothes and seeing their colors, “I like the energy,” he said after buying a handbag for his niece at Bloomingdale’s after his shift two weeks ago.

“You miss out by shopping online,” Smith said. “It’s lonely.”

Photo: Emily, 20, and her mother Lara Dratch, of Allentown, Pa., shop at Forever 21 at the King of Prussia mall on May 27, 2015. About 38 percent of the mall’s visitors are 18 to 34 — the millennial age range. (David Swanson/Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)