Kennyz wrote:The Locally Grown campaign was shut down abruptly about a week ago. The manager told me that people had been asking too many questions.

Best news I've heard in a while. It shows that a healthy number of people aren't sitting back and being spoon-fed this kind of misleading marketing garbage.

Kenny, you spend a lot more time in Dominick's than I thought

It is true that I have a certain sadistic trait that enables me to enjoy roaming the aisles at Dominick's. I get a big kick out of the "30% Off" signs that front every bottle of liquor, rendering the discounted price merely 25% higher than what you'd pay elsewhere. I also enjoy signs like "Custom Cut Beef from Your Neighborhood Butcher" in front of a meat counter where the worker doesn't even have a knife. "Homemade Soup" is excellent comedy as well, as when you press, you find out that the brand name is actually "Homemade". The prices for Dominick's crappy products may be outrageously high, but the excellent entertainment is free.

I reiterate what Sweet Baby Ray said, which matches my own experience: you can only benefit from shopping at Jewel or Dominick's by buying items discounted for loyalty card holders and watching sale prices very closely.

glad to see it's ending and that people were busting their balls for it. I was in a D'nicks a few weeks ago and they had haas avocados marked with their "locally grown" sign, so I grabbed a guy who was stocking fruit and asked him where the avocados were grown.

"Illinois, I guess", he said. "If it's got that locally grown sign, that means they were grown in Illinois."

I felt a bit bad pressing him, since he didn't seem to get it at all, but I pointed out that avocados are a warm weather item, and they don't grown anywhere near here. He didn't seem to care much and shuffled off to keep stocking his "locally grown" mangos and bananas.

I told him to please relay the message to his manager that customers don't appreciate being lied to.

I have seen Dominicks where some of the produce and fruit is from Michigan or/and Illinois, I have never seen a
Dominicks where the Avocadoes are labeled "locally grown", unless Mexico is considered local.
You have to remember people run individual Dominicks and their decisions do not necessarily reflect Dominicks.
I have also been to farmstands in Wisconsin where they have signs "locally grown" however upon closer look the plums and the grapes they are selling are labeled are from California.
Once again it is the individual making a bad decision and is not reflective all the farm stands in Wisconsin.
I am however dissapointed that managers of Dominicks don't have enough independence for example to purchase
locally made tortillas instead import them from some outfit in California.
As far as independent local produce stores in Chicago, there too you can end up with poor quality fruits and vegetables albeit cheap prices.
People tend to blame the the company for bad decisions they make, however usually it is some individual making a a bad decision at that location no matter a big corporation, a small farm stand in Wisconsin or a local produce store.

foodmex wrote:I have seen Dominicks where some of the produce and fruit is from Michigan or/and Illinois, I have never seen a
Dominicks where the Avocadoes are labeled "locally grown", unless Mexico is considered local.
You have to remember people run individual Dominicks and their decisions do not necessarily reflect Dominicks.
I have also been to farmstands in Wisconsin where they have signs "locally grown" however upon closer look the plums and the grapes they are selling are labeled are from California.
Once again it is the individual making a bad decision and is not reflective all the farm stands in Wisconsin.
I am however dissapointed that managers of Dominicks don't have enough independence for example to purchase
locally made tortillas instead import them from some outfit in California.
As far as independent local produce stores in Chicago, there too you can end up with poor quality fruits and vegetables albeit cheap prices.
People tend to blame the the company for bad decisions they make, however usually it is some individual making a a bad decision at that location no matter a big corporation, a small farm stand in Wisconsin or a local produce store.

Sorry, I'm not buyin' it. Dominicks is all about smoke and mirrors: intentional corporate-driven attempts to mislead consumers. Whether it's fake "sale price" items, phony "locally grown" campaigns, or ludicrous "Homemade" manufactured goods with ingredients that come from secret labs, much of the bullshit comes from higher up at this company.

You have to remember people run individual Dominicks and their decisions do not necessarily reflect Dominicks.

um....what?

Dominick's isn't franchised. Sure, "people" run it, but those people do exactly what their corporate bosses tell them to do. If they're told to label avocados as locally-grown, then that's dishonest. If they're told to just go around and slap up locally grown signs at random, that's dishonest. If they're not told or trained what to do, then that's poor management and stupid.

No matter how you slice it, you can't blame it on the "people" that run the individual Dominick's, since those people are employees of the company, and do what the company tells them to do.

So, yes, their decisions do most certainly reflect on Dominick's the company.

foodmex wrote:I have seen Dominicks where some of the produce and fruit is from Michigan or/and Illinois, I have never seen a
Dominicks where the Avocadoes are labeled "locally grown", unless Mexico is considered local.
You have to remember people run individual Dominicks and their decisions do not necessarily reflect Dominicks.
I have also been to farmstands in Wisconsin where they have signs "locally grown" however upon closer look the plums and the grapes they are selling are labeled are from California.
Once again it is the individual making a bad decision and is not reflective all the farm stands in Wisconsin.
I am however dissapointed that managers of Dominicks don't have enough independence for example to purchase
locally made tortillas instead import them from some outfit in California.
As far as independent local produce stores in Chicago, there too you can end up with poor quality fruits and vegetables albeit cheap prices.
People tend to blame the the company for bad decisions they make, however usually it is some individual making a a bad decision at that location no matter a big corporation, a small farm stand in Wisconsin or a local produce store.

Dominick's in Oak Park last week: avocados proudly labeled 'locally-grown' with the new campaign stickers and tags. At the same time, loudspeaker extols: "buy our California avocados at this peak season, only a dollar seventy-nine each."

<facepalm>

Santander wrote:Dominick's in Oak Park last week: avocados proudly labeled 'locally-grown' with the new campaign stickers and tags.

I assume this is not only aggravating, but illegal. What would be the government agency in charge of prosecuting them? The Illinois Attorney General's office? The Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (if in Chicago) or an analogous agency (if in the suburbs)?

riddlemay wrote:I assume this is not only aggravating, but illegal.

Illegal? Lawyers, locavores - any government regulated definition of local on the books? 100 miles, tri-state, lower 48?

I say prosecute Dominicks to the fullest extent of the law for those mislabeled avocados.

riddlemay wrote:

Santander wrote:Dominick's in Oak Park last week: avocados proudly labeled 'locally-grown' with the new campaign stickers and tags.

I assume this is not only aggravating, but illegal. What would be the government agency in charge of prosecuting them? The Illinois Attorney General's office? The Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (if in Chicago) or an analogous agency (if in the suburbs)?

None of the above. I am in charge of prosecuting Dominick's, and the investigation - as you see - is underway.

Yes, they were "locally grown" in the locale in which they were grown(drumroll please). How's that for a tongue twister. I'm afraid it's just one of those silly trendy catch phrases that attract the sheeple.

gooseberry wrote: I'm afraid it's just one of those silly trendy catch phrases that attract the sheeple.

My favorite:

"Top Shelf Liquor"

Anyway, I do shop at Dominick's often enough 'cause it's on the way home and parking is easy and I lack a conscious.

I really don’t notice all this crime around me…

Nice compliment to thousands of robotic idiots that work at Dominicks and evidently at any corporation.
Obviously some super power has control over thousands of people that work at all Dominicks.
Not so, each Dominicks is ran by a general manager and its employees, your experience reflects how that individual Dominicks is operated.
A bad employee does not reflect on all the other employees, they are all people just like you and it is certaily not the policy of Dominicks.
I go to three Dominicks and have not seen any sign on "locally grown" Avocadoes in any of them.
I have experienced some bad service with some of the employees but mostly great service by the rest, Dominicks on Green Bay road comes to mind. The produce section employees at that Dominicks not only are very helpful, they also go out of their way to help, I haven't felt any sinister corporate plan they are pushing on me.
The attitude that corporations are evil, well... is juvenile and insult to millions of people that work for them, maybe just like you and me.
One can have a bad experience at a mom and pop business just as easily at Home Depot and God forbid Walmarts.
We all like to find the old fashioned local stores where we feel that the owners have honest intentions however this always isn't the case because no matter what it is people who own them and run them and most likely we go back to the places where we feel we were treated with friendly and restpectful service, whether it is a restaurant or a retail outlet.
However I am sure none of the poeple who responded to my post are patrons of any corporation because your convictions are greater than you actions, except for the liquor aisle where we all have a weakness.

foodmex wrote:One can have a bad experience at a mom and pop business just as easily at Home Depot and God forbid Walmarts.
We all like to find the old fashioned local stores where we feel that the owners have honest intentions however this always isn't the case because no matter what it is people who own them and run them and most likely we go back to the places where we feel we were treated with friendly and restpectful service, whether it is a restaurant or a retail outlet.
However I am sure none of the poeple who responded to my post are patrons of any corporation because your convictions are greater than you actions, except for the liquor aisle where we all have a weakness.

What you're saying makes sense; however, I read this thread to be putting the fault on corporate processes and choices, not employees. I get great service at my Dominicks and Da Jules, it's just that the good people are working against a corporate culture of (rather insulting) slickness -

"let's have all checkers push $1 unhealthy snacks on all customers at checkout!"
"let's have the nice produce guys label everything local, that's what the people want!"
"let's charge people who don't have a card 100% markup over the store down the street, instead of the 60% for the cardholders!"

These are choices only committees can make. Comfortingly, some corporations don't make these kinds of choices. So the fault here is just on the idiot corporations (which the market is ultimately voting down anyway), not all corporations, and certainly not employees.

Nice compliment to thousands of robotic idiots that work at Dominicks and evidently at any corporation.

saying that employees follow the rules and policies of the company they work for doesn't mean they're "robotic". it means they have jobs. those that don't follow the policies don't stay around long, generally.

Obviously some super power has control over thousands of people that work at all Dominicks.

yes, the "super power" of people needing regular paychecks.

Not so, each Dominicks is ran by a general manager and its employees, your experience reflects how that individual Dominicks is operated.

true, to some extent. but the experience is colored far more by the over-arching corporate polices. the general managers don't get a lot of autonomy. their job is to run the store the way corporate wants it run. if they fail to do that long enough, they get fired.

A bad employee does not reflect on all the other employees, they are all people just like you and it is certaily not the policy of Dominicks.

blaming Dominick's dishonest "locally grown" campaign on "bad employees" is disingenuous. it can be seen at dozens of stores. they can't all be the fault of the "bad employees". also, training employees is the responsibility of the larger organization. if the workers aren't given the tools and information they need to implement the program well, that's a failing on the part of corporate, not the workers.

and, while you're right that bad employees don't reflect on all the other employees, they do reflect on the company.

just wondering, foodmex, why are you so vigorously defending Dominick's here?

So, some of you don't like Dominicks - but prefer the trendy Whole Foods - which has been accused of doing the same things talked about in the opening post of this discussion. And those of you who buy "organically" grown and produced products believe the oftemtimes b.s. pomotional material that causes you to make the more expensive purchases? Much of the discussion is funny, actually - and I'm supposing it's not been meant to be seriously taken.

I agree that many business' push unhealthy and unnecessary items on the customers as in the case of Jewel and Dominicks and it bothers me, especially the cahiers at the check out, some of whom don't like the practice themselves. That being said we have the right as customers to inform these stores that we don't like the practice, not many of us do , nor that there is a guarantee they will respond, however like every other business they are there to make money.
As for those stupid "preffered customer" cards, which mostly benefits them, if I don't have my card, I call the manager and ask him if I am not a preffered customer without my card, they usually give my discount.
Although Jewel now uses their own card if you don't have one, and if the cashier says he/she doesn't have one, I tell them to find one.
I am not all gongho with all corporate practices which some although legal, border on being dishonest. As a customer I find it is my duty to let them know how I feel, and since it is people I am dealing with and not corporate
robots, I pursue it until I find a person that I can reason with, usually with success.
Although I shop at Dominicks amongst many other stores, I realize I am dealing mostly with people just like myself,
and even Dominicks or any other corporation can train their employees they cannot control them, thus I try not blame the company for the actions of few and no I don't work for Dominicks.
The unfortunate case of "locally grown" avocadoes at some Dominicks was bad judgement of someone somewhere most likely at those Dominicks, since I have not seen those signs at the Dominicks I happen to go to,
apples, yes, from Michigan, which I would consider local as it gets.
I use to feel the same way... evil Walmart, evil Starbucks etc. Ok Starbucks might be a little evil... however I realized these corporations are run by people who make bad judgements or policies like the rest of us and I as a customer, most important, since they are trying to entice me, have actually the power to tell them how I feel and many times with positive responds or not to patronize them at all.
If more of us responded in similar fashion perhaps we can actually make an impact on how we like to be treated by these corporations, megamoth company or the corner store it is the same story...people.

foodmex: generally agree with your assessments

Please reveal the location of Megamoth! I'm in the market for chupacabre "oysters."

Bill, I'd be very surprised if you could find a Whole Foods passing off blatantly non-local stuff as local now. They used to do it, their customers called them on it, they got more serious about doing it appropriately. Isn't that how it's supposed to work? So why not give Dominick's the same for doing the same?

foodmex wrote:That being said we have the right as customers to inform these stores that we don't like the practice, not many of us do , nor that there is a guarantee they will respond...

Which is exactly what happened in this case, as outlined carefully by Kennyz

Kennyz wrote:The Locally Grown campaign was shut down abruptly about a week ago. The manager told me that people had been asking too many questions.

So, what exactly is the problem?

even Dominicks or any other corporation can train their employees they cannot control them, thus I try not blame the company for the actions of few and no I don't work for Dominicks.
The unfortunate case of "locally grown" avocadoes at some Dominicks was bad judgement of someone somewhere most likely at those Dominicks, since I have not seen those signs at the Dominicks I happen to go to,

You assume the training has been done. That's a generous assumption on your part. I disagree with that assumption. If you'd talked to the employees, you might've found that they don't even have the first clue what the signs mean, or where they're supposed to place them.

That's not bad judgement, it's bad training. No one expects produce stock clerks to have a working knowledge of what "locally grown" means, or where specific types of produce are grown, or even geography, but it's reasonable to expect Dominick's the company to provide enough training to their staff that they'll know where the signs are supposed to go.

Again, blaming the staff seems like an easy excuse for Dominck's. I'm not sure why you feel compelled to make excuses for them, but you seem intent on making this a battle between the "evil corporations" and the "stupid, unmanageable employees". So in response to what you see (probably correctly) as a knee-jerk anti-corporate reaction on the part of a lot of people, you're employing a knee-jerk anti-low-pay-worker reaction. Not much of an improvement.

If more of us responded in similar fashion perhaps we can actually make an impact on how we like to be treated by these corporations

Totally agree. And, I think if you'll read back, you'll find that's what many of us have done. And, one could argue, that's part of the point of having a thread like this.

Bill wrote:So, some of you don't like Dominicks - but prefer the trendy Whole Foods - which has been accused of doing the same things talked about in the opening post of this discussion. And those of you who buy "organically" grown and produced products believe the oftemtimes b.s. pomotional material that causes you to make the more expensive purchases? ...

Can you rephrase the question, please?

Kennyz wrote:I am in charge of prosecuting Dominick's, and the investigation - as you see - is underway.

Would you mind adding Dominick's "sushi" to that? I'm pretty sure it doesn't qualify to be called as such. Pasteurized process fish-based food product maybe?

foodmex wrote:Nice compliment to thousands of robotic idiots that work at Dominicks and evidently at any corporation.
Obviously some super power has control over thousands of people that work at all Dominicks.
Not so, each Dominicks is ran by a general manager and its employees, your experience reflects how that individual Dominicks is operated.
A bad employee does not reflect on all the other employees, they are all people just like you and it is certaily not the policy of Dominicks.

I guess I don't get this it-isn't-the-company-it's-the-bad-employees hypothesis. The grown-locally signs aren't being ordered and created by the individual GMs of each Dominick's store; they're getting mailed from the corporate offices, sent only after the main office has focus-grouped the whole grown-locally pitch to death. The poor guys working the produce section are no more interested in devising Machiavellian plans of deceit anymore than they're interested in the complaints of the people here unhappy with Dominicks sales strategy. They want to get the shit on the shelves and clock out. I'm not saying that the local GM is never at fault. Anyone who's ever had the misfortune of shopping at the Soviet Jewel on Clark & Bryn Mawr knows what I'm talking about (at least a few years ago; maybe it's changed since). But to suggest that this locally-grown thing is just the result of a few bad apples (yes, I said that) seems way off the mark. And me, I don't mind Dominicks. We used to go to the one at Foster and Sheridan, and while we never bought produce there, the rest of the store worked for me with my cards, coupons, and sales flier. But I don't like getting lied to. I don't like someone who thinks they can lie to me. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The posts that others have made in this thread expressing their distaste for this coordinated misdirection seems entirely appropriate. That's what I think, at least.

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:
Would you mind adding Dominick's "sushi" to that? I'm pretty sure it doesn't qualify to be called as such. Pasteurized process fish-based food product maybe?

Thank god somebody said that. I appreciate the difficulty of mass-producing something like sushi, but seriously, as a store, you don't have to sell everything. Drop the sushi thing unless you find a way to do it right. Hell, even in the neighborhood of right.

leek wrote:I wonder if prices overall are going down, my favorite socks are normally something like $15 per pair (ouch!) and I just got some for $8.99 per pair.

Thorlios?

Bill wrote:So, some of you don't like Dominicks - but prefer the trendy Whole Foods -

I have no use for Whole Foods or Dominicks.

jimswside wrote:

Bill wrote:So, some of you don't like Dominicks - but prefer the trendy Whole Foods -

I have no use for Whole Foods or Dominicks.

For the most part, I agree, though I do occasionally make use of both (Dom's usually for a last minute six pack, and WF usually for fish). No idea to whom Bill was referring.

Chicago Expat wrote:

leek wrote:I wonder if prices overall are going down, my favorite socks are normally something like $15 per pair (ouch!) and I just got some for $8.99 per pair.

Thorlios?

Smartwool

leek wrote:

Chicago Expat wrote:

leek wrote:I wonder if prices overall are going down, my favorite socks are normally something like $15 per pair (ouch!) and I just got some for $8.99 per pair.

Thorlios?

Smartwool

Those are really good, too. I just tried a pair of those out on a ten-mile hike last month, and they treated my feet just fine. Thorlios, if your feet has never been introduced to them, are the finest daily sock you'll ever find. But they do cost a lot.