Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Dump Your Kroger Stock Now

Here’s a stock tip. If you own Kroger stock right about now you may have noticed that since its announcement this morning that it was setting up to limit the hours of some of its 350,000 employees nationwide, because of the increased costs it would have to pay for Obamacare, its stock went up half a point, but then around mid-afternoon, someone realized the true implications of this announcement, and the stock went back down to finish where it started today.
It seems that the good news about lower labor costs, and the business was being proactive in handling the costs of fair health insurance for its third of a million employees, met with the obvious bad news as investors realized that a lower labor force meant longer checkout lines, dirtier aisles, unattended to spills, shopping basket pileups in the parking lot, and meat and produce that was less fresh.
News that did not escape the notice of Houston area rival HEB markets, whose stock price started to rise in the mid afternoon.
Houstonians and suburbanites who have the choice to frequent both will have the opportunity to decide whether to continue shopping at Kroger, which apparently has little concern for its employees, little concern for their health and welfare, and are willing to play off this lack of concern for customer service and customer satisfaction. They apparently have little concern for their customers whom they hope won’t notice any difference in service.
So if you have stock in Kroger, sell it, and buy HEB who have yet to make such an unpatriotic announcement.
Better yet, do all of your shopping at HEB from now on.
The produce section is better and cleaner anyway.
Disclaimer: I am not a stock expert or a licensed stock broker. You take my financial advice at your own peril. The stuff about a better produce section at HEB is an absolute fact, though.

UPDATE: A reader called me on this posting, which I knew to be rightwing claim without basis. See the comments.

2 comments:

JUDI M. said...

The only REAL comments I have found on this subject are those on RIGHT WING sites and GOP backed spokespeople. NOTHING on any legitimate media. I found this tho:

"No evidence found on part timers being cut to 28 hours a week.

there were two posts on this forum about kroger reducing hours on part timers due to obamacare. The sources these two posts cited were conservative websites where one actually cited the other. So there is only one source that makes this claim without citing anyone from kroger. The Doug Ross journal is where this rumor is coming from in which they are citing a source called Operative Faith, which is a religious website probably funded by the GOP. Heres the funny part, while Doug Ross journal cites operative faith, no site linked to operative faith quotes this but freedomworks.org cites doug ross which cites operative faith, which doesnt even have any stories stating this to be fact. I know conservtives are still upset about the rejection of their ideals and their party but until there is a senior kroger official on the record saying this is true then do not beleive it. This has even made it way into the stores but as of right now, there is no evidence to this claim. "

Hal said...

Judi M, this is my source: Freedomworks.
http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/ameliahamilton/kroger-confronts-obamacare-by-reducing-employee-ho

A commenter that I typically delete alerted me to this.

Yes, it is a rightwing political hack website. Yes, there are no legitimate media sites carrying the story. I am simply passing on the GOOD NEWS that is being passed for truth at these sites so people like you can object. Thank you for restoring my faith in the reading public.