[Scape]

[Strutz]

B.C. port workers vote in favour of strike

$1:

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada says a vote over the weekend yielded 99.24 per cent support for strike action against the BC Maritime Employers Association “if necessary.”

The strike vote gives cargo movers additional leverage in talks with employers, allowing the union to file 72-hour notice for a strike to begin on June 24 if negotiations do not progress.

The two sides are currently in a cooling-off period until June 21, while the union's U.S. counterpart holds its own talks with West Coast ports leading to disruptions in ports, including Los Angeles.

Hopefully the two sides can reach an agreement before action is taken or this could get ugly.

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[DrCaleb]

Bought some laundry detergent. Like the dish detergent, it is quite watery. Shrinkflation.

[raydan]

I refill my bottles because, you know, Save the Planet.

[DrCaleb]

Hard to find a place that can do that. I go to one place that I refill almost everything, from maple syrup to spices. They don't have detergent that can be used in front load washers though.

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[herbie]

The strike did not last long enough for Prince Rupert to supply fish to BC's Very Own Food Store instead. The freezers are empty, we'll just have to wait a few weeks to be restocked with frozen Chinese Sewer Fish and Asian Ditch Prawns.
Damn, I'll have to save up for a boat & trailer!

[Scape]

[herbie]

Seems like these problems are getting to us all.
Went into the store there was no 1or 2L milk. No bread other than the $5 $6 loaves. Bakery rack was empty. Entire shelves 3 or 5 ft of empty space, no GZero OR reg Gatorade. Not one single item from their sales flyer or online promo was in stock. Again.

So I jokingly remarked to a woman loading the freezer that I hoped the company wasn't using a 6 hour road closure the other day as their latest excuse.
She went full Karen ballistic - screaming that none of the lazy others wouldn't come in to work, she had to wark 16 hour days, how I was even ignorant to say such a thing. Ya'd think Jimmy Pattison was her grand dad or something.
I told her I wasn't blaming her for anything at all, I was criticizing the company... she repeated how I was ignorant and stormed off into the back room.
Like fuck! Her old man is a manager there but if he'd heard her act like that to a customer, he'd have had to can her ass on the spot!

I did not report her and I'm not mad at her, my wife worked there for 15+ years and since Covid began I heard stress psych outs from her every damn night after work.

This shit's gone on too long. Fruit & vegetables don't come to BC by ship. Meat doesn't come from across the border. Canned goods come from back East. It's not like I pass more semi trucks than cars whenever I use the highway or ever stop for trains anymore.
I didn't run my store making deals with a single supplier, I used several and no matter how slim sales got IT WAS MY JOB to resolve issues.
Not just a grocery chain, I just go there more often than other stores. It's time for head offices to get their shit together.
[/rant]

[DrCaleb]

herbie herbie:

I didn't run my store making deals with a single supplier, I used several and no matter how slim sales got IT WAS MY JOB to resolve issues.
Not just a grocery chain, I just go there more often than other stores. It's time for head offices to get their shit together.
[/rant]

The problem is vertical integration. The grocery chains have sought to own the product from the dirt to the checkout. So mostly they get supplied by their own warehouses. And with all the shipping disruptions, they are finding logistics problems when ships don't arrive on time. Can't put on trucks things that didn't arrive.

That's why I love farmers markets. I know, many of them sell produce from Mexico or South America. But they buy them from the farmers, and act as the distributor. I don't care how they do it, so long as they keep selling me great products.

[herbie]

Like I said, asides from that shit seafood (and the fact all ours is processed over there) the grocery stores aren't mainly supplied through the ports. But as you said 'vertical integration' - the money's in distribution so they've cornered that!
It's been more than a year to get supplies from the canneries in N America to their distribution centres and off to the retail stores. Problem is, when independent stores, corner stores and restaurants must buy from that same single distribution source, everything falls down.
I'm speaking as a customer - I go there to buy things not to hear why they can't sell me things. I'm pissed off when I can't.

Shit I'm amazon-ing socks because even WalNutz hasn't had size 12-15 one in stock for over 2 years. I like cargo pants and not one outlet in Prince George has had any do at least that long. Now I'm searching shirts as Marks never has my size in stock either and I'm not into shelling out Moore's prices to slob around at home or at the pub.
I just ordered TV connectors and a spool of cable as no hardware store has anything but the old style ones and budget pre-made short indoor cables.
Like I say "Is like shopping at GUM in old Soviet Russia. Empty shelves and what is there, only high Party officials can afford."

If I still had the old computer store the strike would've hurt real bad. My phone would ring with multiple little suppliers calling.
We got container of xxxx sell you juss $xxxx. I would decide yes or no, not have to wait for Joe Overlord to come back from lobster lunch - they'd be sold by then.

[DrCaleb]

herbie herbie:

I'm speaking as a customer - I go there to buy things not to hear why they can't sell me things. I'm pissed off when I can't.

I hear ya. Fish should be plentiful and cheap where you are, and beef cheap and plentiful where I am. That it's not is the failure of capitalism.

herbie herbie:

Like I say "Is like shopping at GUM in old Soviet Russia. Empty shelves and what is there, only high Party officials can afford."

Everytime I come to this thread, I think of the scene in "Moscow on the Hudson" where Robin Williams is walking through Moscow, and there is a line up. So he joins the line, and asks someone "What are we lining up for?" Someone says "Shoes, size 6 or 8, I think". They turned out to be summer canvas shoes, and it was winter, so he got 2 pairs for the women he knew. But that's how the system worked, you lined up, and got whatever they had.

Not much different now. You go to the grocery store, and hopefully they have what you need at a price you can afford.

[DrCaleb]

Is it just me, or are cardboard milk containers impossible to open now?