NO LOVE AT KROGER MARKETS (04/07/24)

APRIL 7, 2024 — KRONGER EXITS TEXAS

The company has announced that it will shut down its delivery services in San Antonio, Texas, and Austin, Texas, by the end of May 25, 2024.

The closure of delivery hubs will impact 125 employees, including 73 employees in San Antonio, and 52 employees in Austin. 102 employees are said to be delivery drivers.

JUNE 15, 2018 — Original Post…

Cincinnati, Ohio-based Kroger Markets, the largest U.S. supermarket chain by revenue, announced the company plans to exit the highly competitive Raleigh-Durham market in North Carolina with the sale of its 14 stores and the layoff of approximately 1,500 employees. Curiously, it is believed that eight of the stores will be sold to Matthews, North Carolina-based Harris Teeter Supermarkets, which was acquired by Kroger in 2014. 

According to Jerry Clontz, president of the Mid-Atlantic Division of Kroger, "We have decided to close our stores in the highly competitive Raleigh-Durham market. We have not been able to grow our business the way we would like in this market."

Competition in groceries and non-foods markets has been undergoing rapid change with the entry of Amazon and the availability of home delivery from larger players in an attempt to capture shoppers. The days when a large family would spend hundreds of dollars in a single-store bi-weekly or monthly shopping trip are over as consumer buying patterns appear to feature smaller purchases at multiple stores, and even higher-priced neighborhood convenience markets

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

NO LOVE AT PITTSBURGH GLASS WORKS

Pittsburgh Glass Works, a division of Mexico-based Vitro, announced it would shutter their Creighton facility in mid-2018 and lay off about 200 employees in Deer Park, Pennsylvania. It is anticipated that some of the business will be transferred to PGW's facility in Evansville, Indiana. 

Vitro purchased the 135-year-old facility from the iconic PPG, Pittsburgh Plate Glass, in 2016. This was PPG’s original glass plant known as “Works No. 1” and established in 1883. 

Management cited a combination of difficult realities in making the decision to close the facility; including a cumbersome and inefficient two-story footprint, excess capacity, and an inability to meet the auto industry's increasing technological demands for automotive glass, and would require significant upgrades and improvement to remain competitive. Not to mention the long-term fire burning in the coal layers located under the plant necessitating costly safety measures. 

This is a major blow to the employees, the surrounding businesses, and the township.  

Are you asking yourself, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH (UPDATED)

UPDATE: AUGUST 13, 2018 ACTIVIST AT NEILEN

According to published reports in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere, activist Elliot Management now owns more than 8% of Nielsen and is attempting to pressure the company to put itself up for sale.

Several private equity firms, perhaps Elliot Management included, sense a quick restructuring and a big profit to be made. It goes without saying that cost-cutting and a reduction-in-force will follow as the night follows the day. This will not be the first time Nielsen has been it play as it was privatized by equity firms in 2006, apparently with an exit strategy that saw the company go public again in 2011. The handwriting is clearly on the wall.

Original Post...

Technology giveth and taketh away …

Few should be surprised that Nielsen Media Research, the iconic media measurement service, plans to lay off at least 724 employees in two Florida location as they transition between the use of paper diaries to record user’s habits and preferences to a fully electronic system. Nielsen will be closing its North Venice, Florida Diary Checking Center with 396 employees being permanently laid off. The remaining 52 employees will be transferred to Nielsen’s Sarasota, Florida office. 328 workers will be laid off at Nielsen’s call center in Oldsmar, Florida. 

As consumer devices become web-enabled and can transmit user data to centralized servers, Nielsen’s business model will continue to change forcing Nielsen to purchase data from third-party sources or modify its equipment to intercept and scrape user data from existing devices. There is an upcoming battle between consumers and technology vendors to define which user usage data can be accessed and sold to third-parties under the guise of “improving the user experience” or “precise targeting” to deliver relevant advertising.

Are you asking yourself, Am I Next?