out of food

Foodtown Mt Eden had quite bare shelves when I popped in yesterday evening. My immediate thoughts were of slack management, or a high number of sickies. Unfortunately I was wrong.

Progressive Enterprises, the people who bring grocery items to half the country through the Foodtown, Countdown and Woolworth's brands, have locked out their striking distribution workers . Mt Eden store is particularly noticeable, because of it's small storeroom, it requires multiple deliveries of dry goods every day. Other supermarket's will be feeling the pinch soon, as groceries continue to sell and DC's fail to keep up with demand with their union workforce unable to return to work.

The dispute itself is over national pay rates - the union contesting that workers throughout the country should be paid the same for the same job. Prog's, presumably, pays their non-Auckland workers less, because the market pay is less. Working in Auckland is more expensive for two reasons:
- Cost of travel, further to go in most cases.
- Progressive Enterprises prices by region, essentially making Central Auckland the most expensive place to buy groceries in the country.

But that doesn't mean that Palmerston North worker's don't have to travel or buy food.

[Update: I presumed wrong, see next post]

Whatever the result, in the meantime, expect empty supermarket shelves and a PR disaster for Progs.