This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Update 1:37 P.M. Monday March 25. This column was updated to reflect recent movement towards an agreement between Kroger and UFCW Local 7.
One of the most convincing demonstrations I've ever seen of the power of companies collecting your personal data is a remarkable 2012 profile of Target's skill at analyzing your personal information in the New York Times. Among other amazing details, in its first paragraphs it relays the kind of heartless observation which could only be summoned from the depths of a mega-corporation. It's immensely profitable to be able to figure out whether or not a customer is pregnant, "even if she didn’t want us to know." The birth of a child is one of the few predictable times when a family's shopping habits are in flux. You're not going to go across town to your usual place to pick up diapers at 3 A.M. when there's a Target right there.
As my friends who have had children tell me, when your child is born, its as if every marketing department on the planet has turned its entire laser-like focus on you. Most other companies had to do with watching the filing of birth certificates, which are public record. But if Target could figure it out sooner, specifically find all the "women in their second trimester," it would divert childless-couple shopping habits into its family-friendly-shopping stores long before the competition had the chance. It's marketing department went to its mad scientist division and said, “Can you give us a list?” From the New York Times:
“We knew that if we could identify them in their second trimester, there’s a good chance we could capture them for years,” [evil genius and Target Mad Scientist Andrew Pole] said. “As soon as we get them buying diapers from us, they’re going to start buying everything else too. If you’re rushing through the store, looking for bottles, and you pass orange juice, you’ll grab a carton. Oh, and there’s that new DVD I want. Soon, you’ll be buying cereal and paper towels from us, and keep coming back.”
Target got good at it. They got scary good. Again, from the New York Times:
About a year after [peeping Tom with a budget Andrew] Pole created his pregnancy-prediction model, a man walked into a Target outside Minneapolis and demanded to see the manager. He was clutching coupons that had been sent to his daughter, and he was angry, according to an employee who participated in the conversation.
“My daughter got this in the mail!” he said. “She’s still in high school, and you’re sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?”
The manager didn’t have any idea what the man was talking about. He looked at the mailer. Sure enough, it was addressed to the man’s daughter and contained advertisements for maternity clothing, nursery furniture and pictures of smiling infants. The manager apologized and then called a few days later to apologize again.
On the phone, though, the father was somewhat abashed. “I had a talk with my daughter,” he said. “It turns out there’s been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of. She’s due in August. I owe you an apology.”
I expound on all this not just because I think it's a great story to share, but to underline the point that retailers care deeply about your shopping habits. The fact that you go to the same grocery store every week, even though it's not the most convenient, matters a lot to their bottom line.
Negotiations between King Soopers, which is owned by corporate mega-beast Kroger, and 12,000 employees represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers have been on the rocks for weeks and as of last weekend a strike had been authorized by workers. No strike occurred because King Soopers and the union were both convinced that further negotiation might avert a strike. Until just recently, it seemed a strike was inevitable though the union is endorsing the most recent offer and is in the process of scheduling a membership vote. During this time, I've stopped shopping at King Soopers and I think you should too.
The wages earned by the average American have been stagnant for decades, even as 'productivity' and corporate profits have soared, making high level executives and their rich buddies who own stock wealthy while protesting that there's no money in the budget to raise wages. The decoupling of the income of company owners and workers began when federal law became hostile to organized labor. It is unethical for company owners to make so much while leaving their employees reliant on government assistance despite working a full-time job, or two.
King Soopers employees are standing up for themselves, and in doing so they are part of a rising tide of organized labor in the United States that is one of just a few forces working for middle class and poor Americans. Most of organized labor's gains have been in the public sector, but a private sector union having the wherewithal to call a strike would send a gong around the country.
From what I can tell, UFCW Local 7 has made reasonable demands of Kroger and Kroger has done the usual thing of trying to appear reasonable to win the public relations battle while making only small concessions. As members of the public, if we believe in what UFCW Local 7 is trying to do in raising the standards of living of its members, we must do our part to help them.
The most effective thing you can do to support Kroger's employees is to boycott King Soopers until this dispute is resolved. Kroger cares a lot about our shopping habits. But I've stopped shopping at King Soopers, which has caused me to try some of the other upscale grocery stores in town which I'd previously disregarded as too fancy for me. As it turns out, as long as I shop smart I've found the prices to be reasonable and the goods of substantially higher quality. My habits are changing, and I may never go back to shopping at King Soopers, whose selection I was previously satisfied with.
And that's the risk that we can put on Kroger: That the longer they hold their breath, getting as blue as their logo, the greater the risk that their customers will just find other places to go. That there won't just be no damage, but that they might actually lose money for not fairly compensating their employees.
The horror.
