Apple Store Workers Unionize

Belly up to the Genius Bar. Apple retail workers have voted to unionize.

“Workers at Apple’s Towson Town Center store in Maryland have voted to unionize, with 65 yeses and 33 nos. Around 110 employees were eligible to vote in the election.”

“Organizing at the Towson store has been done by a group of employees that called themselves AppleCORE (an acronym for Coalition of Organized Retail Employees). The workers have said they want to expand their rights, specifically asking for a say when it came to pay, hours, and safety. AppleCORE is associated with a larger, established union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.”

— “Apple retail workers vote to unionize a store in Maryland,” Mitchell Clark, The Verge (links added)

More:

“Apple workers in Maryland vote to join union, a first for the tech giant in US,” Edward Helmore, The Guardian

“Apple store workers vote to form first US union,” David Molloy, BBC News

“Apple Store workers approve union, the first in the U.S.,”  Rachel Lerman, Aaron Gregg and Praveena Somasundaram Washington Post

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Image (“Apple Store, after a 1900 trade card by Tom Browne“) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Buffalo Starbucks Unionizes

Employees of the Starbucks on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, NY, have voted to unionize. These bolshevik baristas are the first in the United States to successfully organize, and were hailed by Vermont commissar Bernie Sanders. Starbucks employees also voted “Union Yes” in nearby Cheektowaga.

More:

“Starbucks workers form their 1st union in the U.S. in a big win for labor,” Alina Selyukh, NPR News

Update:

“A Rhodes Scholar barista and the fight to unionize Starbucks,” Greg Jaffe, Washington Post

Related:

“An Inside Look at Union Organizing in the Fast-Food Industry,” Lela Nargi, Eater

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Image (“Neo-Nighthawks, after Edward Hopper”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Dollar Stores

There are more than 34,000 Dollar General, Dollar Store, and Family Dollar stores across the country, more locations than Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, and Target combined. A new one opens every 6 hours, usually in a lower-income area. Dollar General is a Fortune 500 company, worth more than Coca Cola. Dollar stores did it the old-fashioned way: scamming poor people.

More:

“The economics of dollar stores,” Zachary Crockett, The Hustle

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Dollar General’s Strategy to Capture Rural America

Dollar General has reported 31 consecutive years of growth and is opening two new U.S. stores every day, usually in rural areas with few other retail options. This Wall Street Journal video explains.

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It’s Beginning ….

On the shelves of Retail America, it began to look like Christmas the day after Halloween. The perfume and electric shaver ads began appearing a few weeks later. Try to dig yourself out of the blizzard of consumerist frenzy.

Debacle on 34th Street: No Santas at Macy’s

Sorry, Virginia, St. Nick has left the building. For the first time in 159 years, children won’t sit on Santa’s lap at Macy’s department stores. Santaland has imposed COVID-19 self-quarantine. After Thanksgiving, kids can book appointments for a Zoom visit with a Macy’s Santa. Hey kids: maybe Amazon can put Santa on your Fire Tablet!

More:

“Macy’s cancels visits with Santa, offers online experience,” Jean Lotus, UPI

“Santa is skipping Macy’s for the first time in 159 years,” Alexis Benveniste, CNN Business

“Santa Claus won’t be coming to Macy’s this year,” Joseph Pisani, Associated Press

“Macy’s: There Is No Santa Claus (At Company Stores) This Year,” Bruce Haring, Deadline

Related:

“Santa actors were offered early vaccine as part of scrapped federal PSA campaign: HHS,” Jean Lotus, UPI

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Image (“Will Ho-Ho-Ho for Food”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Credit Card Rewards

Who actually pays for your credit card rewards? Everybody. A Vox video.

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Walmart To Replace Janitors With Robots

“The world’s largest retailer is rolling out 360 autonomous floor-scrubbing robots in some of its stores in the U.S. by the end of the January, it said in a joint statement with Brain Corp., which makes the machines. The autonomous janitors can clean floors on their own even when customers are around, according to the San Diego-based startup.”

–“Robot Janitors Are Coming to Mop Floors at a Walmart Near You,” Pavel Alpeyev, Bloomberg

That means Walmart will retrain its janitors as cashiers and open more checkout lines, right? Ha.

The Birth of the Price Tag

For centuries buying something meant haggling, negotiating with shopkeepers to get a lower price. As a result, the same goods cost different people different prices. In the mid-19th century, U.S. Quakers came to believe that charging people different amounts for the same item was immoral, so they started using price tags which, if not more moral, are more efficient.

An NPR Planet Money video.

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NYC Hot Dog Stand License: $289,500. Per Year.

Licenses for a New York City hot dog stand can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. There are 3,100 hot dog stand licenses in New York City, and there’s a 20 year waiting list for them. The licenses, not the hot dogs.

A “Half as Interesting” video from Wendover Productions

Update:

“‘Unjust and immoral’: street vendors call on New York City to issue more permits,” Erin Durkin, The Guardian

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