Kudos To Roundy's

I applaud Roundy's for making the call to close up their stores early on Monday due to the harsh weather that is expected:

Milwaukee-based grocer Roundy's said Friday that it will close its stores in Wisconsin early on Monday because of the cold weather that is forecast.

"For the safety of our staff and customers, all Pick 'n Save, Copps and Metro Market stores will close at 8 p.m. on Monday, due to the extreme cold temperatures expected in the area," the company said in a statement. Stores will reopen at 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Roundy's has 121 stores and 13,500 employees in Wisconsin.

"Even for the state of Wisconsin, this is really cold weather," said James Hyland, vice president of investor relations for Roundy's.

It's not surprising that governmental entities like the schools to close for the day when it is dangerously cold. It's also not uncommon for smaller companies to close early or just stay closed for the day when it gets this nasty. But it's not often you hear of a major chain to make a decision like that.

I don't see Walmart doing anything like that.

Again, kudos to Roundy's.  It's nice to see a bigger company act decently. Then again, they are a union shop, so they've already shown themselves to be decent.

Chairman Bob Gets A Black Eye

In a story from the Business Journal, it is reported that a manager of a Rainbow Foods store in St. Paul, Minnesota was stabbed in the chest by an irate customer.  The manager testified against his assailant, who was given a sentence of three years in prison.  A week after the sentencing, Rainbow Foods, a subsidiary of Roundy's Supermarkets fired the manager.  Their reason was because he had to take breaks from work to deal with PTSD he is suffering as a consequence of being assaulted.  The manager also is stating that he asked for a transfer to a different store, but was denied.

So egregious is their firing of the manager who was injured in the line of duty, that the county attorney is going to write a letter to "Chairman Bob" to ask him to reconsider the firing.

Now, I don't think for a minute that Bob Mariano had anything to do with the firing.  That was probably done by an overly zealous and bureaucratic regional manager.  But it is still the Roundy's company and as its head, Mariano, who gets the black eye from this PR nightmare.

Will Mariano override the firing? Who knows? But he should, if nothing else than for the image of his company.

But this story is also a strong example of what is wrong in our olegarchal society today.  Only in an oversized megacompany like Roundy's would the human factor be so lost as they would do something like firing an employee for being injured on the job.  If anything, the manager should be given a commendation of some sort.

It also shows why the Citizens United ruling was so wrong.  Companies are not people, and should never have been given the same status or voice as a real person.  As a society, by definition, our laws should reflect our values and our humanity.  And that is something that a company or corporation could ever do. 

It is also pretty said when you have people that believe corporations should be given more consideration than a person who happens to be gay and in love with that special someone.