Tuesday, March 26, 2013

19 Shaw’s in Vt. under new owner

Central Vermont grocery shoppers will be seeing changes now that all the 19 Shaw’s stores in the state have changed hands, said local management.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20130326/NEWS02/703269919/1003

20 comments :

  1. If the Springfield Shaw's lowers prices perhaps most of the town would shop there instead of at Market Basket in Claremont. This town has needed a good grocery store for years

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  2. Agree! I miss the good ole' days of Grand Union and Price Chopper. At lest there was competition in the plaza.

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  3. kind of funny when u see the town manager and fire chief over there grocery shopping...

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    1. I love going to wal mart and seeing Cynthia Martin and Alice Nitka there. I especially love that they drive the state cars for unofficial business.

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  4. Good news! I have already been noticing some changes for the better including prices that do seem to be heading lower. It certainly is a more pleasant experience shopping at Shaws than MB, to say the least.

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  5. Anon 10:48 those are P.O.V.'s , Think before you speak.

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  6. chuck gregory3/28/13, 11:11 PM

    Are the prices going to be lower? The usual shtick is, a bigger fish swallows the little fish (Comcast ate Adelphia, Unilever ate B&J's), then raises prices to cover the cost of the purchase (they never buy failing companies; they buy the profitable ones at higher prices).

    The other alternative of course is vulture capitalism, where they will sell "high yield" (i.e., junk bonds, which are IOU's which in effect say, "I am going to use your money to buy a gun for a holdup. If it doesn't work, you don't get anything, but if I pull it off, you'll make better than any other investment on the market except a political campaign contribution") to investors. Loaded up with investor debt, they then take out loans based on the value of the 19 Shaw's that they purchase and use that money to repay the investors and make their 16 (or whatever) percent. They then saddle the stores with the debt and after cutting staff, service, hours, and quality, declare bankruptcy.

    So which do we have going on here, or is there a third mode in play? For instance, is the Walton family buying them through a third party to close them down?

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  7. chuck gregory3/28/13, 11:21 PM

    Cerberus, the buyer, bought out GMAC, one of the major subprime lenders, at the height of the subprime bubble (and all that that entails), and got bailed out to the tune of $16.3 billion by the federal government. A look at their track record indicates the stores are just a few more chips on the felt for them.

    He who dies with the most toys, wins. Anyone want to place bets on the longevity of the stores under their ownership?

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    1. Oh my gosh, this is exactly what is happening! Chuck you are so smart and perceptive. Thank God we have you here to shine light on these things. The evil capitalist are moving in on Springfield and closing our only grocery store (no offense to Jakes meant), next thing you know we’ll all be on buses heading to Claremont to buy our groceries at one of the other evil capitalist stores. What is one to do? And this all is happening at Easter, what a coincidence. Will Chucky be sacrificed to save the peasants of Springfield?

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    2. Please cite your source for all your "facts".

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  8. Chuck, clean up in aisle 5. Chuck, carry out. Chuck, report to the manager's office...

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  9. chuck gregory or his evil twin3/29/13, 3:00 PM

    Google GMAC and Ally to learn about their piracy in the subprime years and Cerberus wiki to get the basics on them. Also, you might want to ask around Springfield on how well it went when Textron and then Goldman Industrial Group bought up the shops.

    Harry Byrd, you sound as though you'll be happy with either higher prices or more unemployed on the streets in town. What would be better for the town would be for the employees to buy the store.

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    1. No Chucky, I'm just tired of your anti-every thing attacks. You hate capitalism that is fine with me. But please stop jumping on here with all this drivel that has nothing to do with the story. Companies change hands all the time and Shaw's has the highest prices of all grocery chains close by, so what did folks do? They traveled out of town to shop. I guess that is sending a loud message isn't it as Shaws could not stay in business anywhere. My guess now, lower prices, more employment and a better meat department! I may even start shopping there again!

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    2. Show me something besides google etc.
      You were after someone last week about you doing their research for them or you wouldn't listen.
      It appears that you want your cake and eat it too.
      Show us your research .
      Or please be quiet.

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    3. chuck gregory3/29/13, 11:13 PM

      The only reason I didn't post the link was that to retrieve it, I have to lose this page. Here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus.

      Let me know what you find wrong with the citation.

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  10. chuck gregory3/29/13, 5:52 PM

    There's a bigger picture, Harry Byrd. It involves businesses that are organic to the town, not shuffled around like Monopoly board pieces; people who work for a business they value and which values them; a financial industry which weighs the integrity of the economy over its drive to make the next eighth of a cent; and a town that's suffering now because not enough of that happened.

    Anyone who wants to shop at the cheapest place around is welcome to do so, but when those prices are achieved by paying the workforce so little that they have to apply for welfare, it's a bad thing.

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    1. Chuckles, here's a bigger picture for you. Before you start jammer on I'll gladly match my business degree (a very good one) and my successful past involvement with three businesses that started scratch in various parts of the country. You reading a few opinion pieces and trying to pass them off as facts on here is getting boring. If you worked for me, well by now you wouldn't be.

      Here is a side note for your "fact sheets". Most employee brought out business is from Mom & Pop shops. Corporations rarely sell out to employees, often due to the compilations set in place by our government, or IRS if you wish. Employee owned business seldom succeed without great management. King Arthur Flour fits that description of great management. Most employees are exactly that, employees. Take a walk thru Shaws and tell me what group would find the money or financing to take over, or would even want to.

      Do you know margins of grocery stores? Most work on less than ten percent. Albertson's which is part of the group mentioned averaged 6.8 percent in their peak years. I know I worked for them in an anchor store. Yet their stock spilt more that once because those numbers were so good. But it takes several stores in operation to create those numbers, not one in Springfield, a town of 9,000.

      This town had the chance to keep Price Chopper and still have Shaw's, decisions where made to let Price Chopper go. So went the competition. What did you get, higher prices from the only game in town.

      Employees do make a business work. Store managers create employee value and build employees into a team. Valued employees are seldom lost as a good management team doesn't operate without them. You may have had a lousy work experience somewhere and as most do, they blame the management for not caring. Boo hoo for you.

      You seem to have access to millions of dollars with the way you speak here. Why do I think that? Seems money in never a problem, you're ready to take it from the taxpayers, the one percenters, businesses that are still open and anyone buying a burger at McDonalds.

      Tell me now your business history.







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    2. Chuck, define how you used organic in the second sentence for us please . I put a reference in here for you.
      Please help me try to understand what you are saying,so many times it makes no sense at all.

      or·gan·ic
      [awr-gan-ik] Show IPA

      adjective
      1.
      noting or pertaining to a class of chemical compounds that formerly comprised only those existing in or derived from plants or animals, but that now includes all other compounds of carbon.

      2.
      characteristic of, pertaining to, or derived from living organisms: organic remains found in rocks.

      3.
      of or pertaining to an organ or the organs of an animal, plant, or fungus.

      4.
      of, pertaining to, or affecting living tissue: organic pathology.

      5.
      Psychology . caused by neurochemical, neuroendocrinologic, structural, or other physical impairment or change: organic disorder. Compare functional

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    3. chuck gregory3/29/13, 11:07 PM

      It's a metaphorical organic, akin to #4-- the way trees are organic to a forest. "Integral" would be the word used customarily. However, language changes as we see things differently, and I see a community as a living thing, much like the human body. Springfield as a community has various parts. All contribute, even though the role of some are either not appreciated nor recognized, just as the appendix used to be. Cripple or remove them, and the loss will be felt. Nurture and improve them, and the benefits will enrich us. That makes me think, "it's organic."

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  11. chuck gregory3/29/13, 11:11 PM

    Harry Byrd, with your business experience, you could be making huge contributions to improving Springfield. Why waste your time nitpicking with me or carping about present discontents rather than proposing great solutions and using your social contacts in town to make them happen?

    I feel I have some great solutions, but I also know I have all the influence of a leper. I would really like to see you do something better than I ever could to make Springfield the best place to live in, in the best state in the country.

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