Wegmans is a family-owned grocery store chain. NYTimes noted it can actually claim a "cult following".
The Center for American Progress reports
It manages to have a huge selection while offering prices that can compete with Walmart, but that it does it while treating its employees well.
The perks start with pay, which for hourly store employees is a little more than $33,000 a year on average. By contrast, Walmart has admitted that more than half of its employees make less than $25,000 a year.
[...]but that's not what makes the company famous for employee satisfaction, landing it on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list every year since the list began. It also offers generous benefits. It pays about 85 percent of the costs of health care coverage, including dental, for its full-time employees and offers insurance to part-time workers who put in 30 hours a week. It offers 401(k) plans with a salary match of up to 3 percent of an employee's contribution.
And it has a scholarship program[...]
Wegmans also offers more work/life balance than most retail jobs.[...]
These benefits aren't just altruistic. The company generates $7.1 billion in revenue and is profitable. "When you think about employees first, the bottom line is better," the company's vice-president for human resources has said. The company boasts a 5 percent turnover rate among full-time employees, compared to a 27 percent[paywall] rate for the industry. That comes with a cost, as it often eats up about 20 percent of a worker's salary to replace him.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Sunday May 17 2015, @03:50AM
I think Wegmans is proving this isn't always the case. It is a rare thing for a company to compete and win against Wallmart, and nearly unheard of for a company to do this while being so loved by both customers and employees. Most markets have a Wegmans/Publix like chain because of this.
Though you are right, Wegmans is being anti-capitalist in providing this to people. They could simply focus on being slightly-less-shitty than Wallmart and still be successful. I fully expect if they were publicly owned, this is what they would be.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @04:52AM
We are between two Wegmans grocery stores and there is a Walmart (with grocery section) even closer. We rarely buy food at Walmart, in particular the produce quality at Walmart sucks while Wegmans produce is the best I've seen pretty much anywhere in the eastern USA.
Some of the earlier comments on Walmart pushing brands out of the market could be true. In the last few years, Wegmans seems to have less brand name packaged goods and more house branded stuff (which often isn't as good).
One pet peeve is that no one here in the east has consistently good avocados, they often have inedible black lines through the flesh. It's to the point that I suspect a conspiracy -- the California avocado growers keep all the good ones for local sale...!
(Score: 2) by kaganar on Monday May 18 2015, @02:11PM
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday May 19 2015, @12:22AM
Costco avocados are pretty decent usually. They get them super green, so you usually have to wait a couple days before you can eat any them, but once they are ripe and in the fridge they might last at least a week.
Or they would if avocados lasted that long at my house.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh