Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM) touts itself as an upscale grocer, and charges the prices to prove it. It's not for nothing that its nickname is Whole Paycheck, where items can cost double the price of what's sold at Kroger (KR) or Walmart Stores Inc. (WMT) . With that in mind, you might think that the Whole Foods in Tribeca, one of New York City's priciest neighborhoods, would be a gleaming example of a premier grocer serving a largely well-to-do customer base. Here in this lower Manhattan locale, the median annual income is nearly $120,000 and median home sales go for $2.3 million, according to Point2Point Homes. Many of the neighborhood's residents are college-educated professionals. But when
What's a coal miner to do when they're laid off, leaving them without much-needed insurance or their pension? When mining companies move to new locations with cheaper coal, local residents like Lilly believe the coal companies "failed" them. In one example portrayed in the documentary, Alpha Natural Resources sent letters to 100 workers about upcoming layoffs.
I haven't been inside a Sears store for more than 10 years, until Thursday, June 22. And, wow, did I learn a lot. Mainly, I came away with a better understanding of why Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) is closing an additional 20 stores on top of the 245 it already planned to shutter. And why it has failed to turn a profit in 29 out of the last 37 quarters and seen same-store sales decline in 11 of the past 12 quarters. Sears' shares rose 8.4% to $7.98 on Tuesday morning. I observed alienating treatment of a loyal customer at the store in Jersey City, N.J., which was also messy and uninviting inside. When I came upon customer Stephanie Rosso, a resident of Jersey City, she was struggling with four