Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
Earlier this year, Long Beach mayor Robert Garcia and the Long Beach City Council set about instituting a new $4 per hour hero pay increase for essential grocery store workers. The citywide requirement meant that companies that employ over 300 grocery workers nationally, and more than fifteen 15 employees per grocery store in the City of Long Beach, must provide $4 more per hour, per employee, in “premium pay” for the next four months.
Almost immediately after the city ordinance passed on January 19, two North Long Beach grocery store locations announced that they would close: the Ralphs at Los Coyotes and Diagonal, and the Food 4 Less on South Street near Cherry Avenue. A spokesperson for Kroger the world’s largest grocery chain and owner of both Ralphs and Food 4 Less laid the blame at the feet of mayor Garcia and the city council, saying that “despite our efforts to overcome the financial challenges we were already faci
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“It was a shock,” Hines-Parks said. “I’m still shocked.”
Nearly 200 Kroger employees are facing layoffs or transfers following Monday’s announcement by Kroger Co. that it would close two Long Beach stores after the city mandated that large grocery companies pay workers an extra $4 an hour during the pandemic. The company has yet to make any announcements related to employee retention.
The two stores that will close on April 17 are Food 4 Less on South Street and Ralphs at the intersection of Los Coyotes Diagonal and Wardlow Road in East Long Beach.
Hines-Parks, a diabetic, worked through five months of the pandemic while pregnant. She gave birth in August and was back in the bakery department by December. She said it was “scary” going to work each day.