Grocery Store

Three days after Walt Disney Studios said it would incur a $200-million loss on "John Carter," the film's star, Taylor Kitsch, was still licking his wounds. He had just returned to his Beverly Hills hotel, cheeks flushed following a boxing workout where a fellow gym rat had tried to console him about the box-office dud. "This guy came up to me and goes, 'Next one. Don't worry about it, you'll be fine,' " Kitsch chafed. "I'm like, 'I'm not worried about it, man. I didn't market the movie.

Three days after Walt Disney Studios said it would incur a $200-million loss on "John Carter," the film's star, Taylor Kitsch, was still licking his wounds. He had just returned to his Beverly Hills hotel, cheeks flushed following a boxing workout where a fellow gym rat had tried to console him about the box-office dud. "This guy came up to me and goes, 'Next one. Don't worry about it, you'll be fine,' " Kitsch chafed. "I'm like, 'I'm not worried about it, man. I didn't market the movie.

  The last thing a supermarket shopper wants to see is long lines and empty registers. Ten years ago, shoppers envisioned a day when radio-frequency identification tags would enable them to whisk shopping carts through a checkout without unloading them - or bypass the checkout lane and ring up groceries as they walked through the store. But RFID never got cheap enough for razor-thin grocery margins. And we're still stacking groceries on conveyor belts, a 19th-century invention.

Tests on seafood sold at Los Angeles sushi bars, other restaurants, and grocery stores have revealed that more than half is not labeled correctly, a nonprofit organization is reporting. Red snapper, Dover sole, white tuna and other fish were often different species, the group Oceana found in DNA tests of seafood from 74 retail outlets in Los Angeles. In all, 55% of 119 fish samples from across L.A. were misidentified, Oceana said. Oceana focused on the frequency of mislabeling rather than its origins.

In a bid to fight childhood obesity and change eating habits on the local level, First Lady Michelle Obama is expected to announce a healthful food financing initiative Wednesday that aims to draw grocery stores into so-called food desert areas in California. The $200-million program, dubbed the California FreshWorks Fund, is a joint effort by the California Endowment and a team of grocery industry groups, healthcare organizations and leading Wall Street banks. Modeled after similar funds launched in New York City and Pennsylvania, the idea for the California fund was hatched about 18 months ago by the California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation.

After the merger between Ralphs and Hughes supermarkets, the state attorney general ordered that 19 of the Southern California stores be sold or closed for antitrust reasons. The Times article, "Merger Eating Away at Possible Buyers of 19 Ralphs / Hughes Stores," (Aug. 11) said that because so many mergers are going on, Ralphs is now finding it difficult to find a buyer for these stores. Many months ago I wrote protesting plans to close the Ralphs store in Central Plaza in Camarillo.

It's like one of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books you loved as a kid. When Roberta Valderrama auditioned for TBS' new series "10 Items or Less," about life working in a supermarket, producers handed her an actual application to the grocery store where the show is set. In filling out the form, she scribbled a character into existence that day: Yolanda Nelson, she wrote, mother of three and a former security guard fired for sporting oversized hoop earrings.

As part of her campaign to battle childhood obesity, First Lady Michelle Obama visited the site of a future grocery store in Inglewood on Wednesday and spoke about the importance of bringing fresh food to disadvantaged communities. The market, which will open in April in an empty warehouse on South Prairie Avenue, is part of a statewide push to reduce obesity by attracting grocers to low-income neighborhoods and making healthy food more accessible. "I'm here today because I believe every family in our country should have access to healthy food," she said to a group of community residents and leaders.

Like a marinara sauce spooned over pasta, the word spread slowly Wednesday through the noontime lunch crowd filling the cozy banquettes and tables at Little Joe's. After 101 years of helping feed Los Angeles, the famed Italian restaurant in the middle of Chinatown announced that it is closing. "This is awful, just awful," moaned Neil Olsen, who has dined at Little Joe's since 1936--when he was a 5-year-old who regularly accompanied his parents for spaghetti dinners.

To all you people out there who wiped out the bottled-water shelves at the grocery store: Don't you feel foolish? ROBERT PEREZ Rancho Cucamonga

Is healthcare a privilege or a right?  As Times consumer columnist David Lazarus wrote Friday: “One of the most striking take-aways from this week's U.S. Supreme Court hearings on the healthcare reform law was the steadfast insistence on the part of Republicans to deny affordable and accessible medical treatment to as many people as possible.” Lazarus added that “that means some sort of requirement that everyone have health coverage...

  The last thing a supermarket shopper wants to see is long lines and empty registers. Ten years ago, shoppers envisioned a day when radio-frequency identification tags would enable them to whisk shopping carts through a checkout without unloading them - or bypass the checkout lane and ring up groceries as they walked through the store. But RFID never got cheap enough for razor-thin grocery margins. And we're still stacking groceries on conveyor belts, a 19th-century invention.

As part of her campaign to battle childhood obesity, First Lady Michelle Obama visited the site of a future grocery store in Inglewood on Wednesday and spoke about the importance of bringing fresh food to disadvantaged communities. The market, which will open in April in an empty warehouse on South Prairie Avenue, is part of a statewide push to reduce obesity by attracting grocers to low-income neighborhoods and making healthy food more accessible. "I'm here today because I believe every family in our country should have access to healthy food," she said to a group of community residents and leaders.

Seven Southland grocery stores are among 12 under-performing locations nationwide to be closed by Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets in an effort to boost profitability, a report says. The seven stores in Southern California -- in Anaheim, Bakersfield, Baldwin Park, Fountain Valley, Fresno, Hemet and Ontario -- will close within the next few weeks, along with four stores in Phoenix and one in Las Vegas, company spokesman Brendan Wonnacott wrote in an email. "At this time, there is simply not enough growth in sales and customers at those stores to keep them open," Wonnacott said.

Millions of Californians took part in one of the largest-ever simultaneous earthquake drills Thursday, sending students, hospital workers and even Target shoppers dropping for cover at 10:20 a.m. The annual ShakeOut drill, which attracted 8.6 million registrants in California, was intended to train the public on what to do the moment the shaking begins — dropping, covering your head, and holding on, rather than panicking and running, which would...

When Jason Weaver of Anaheim was 15, he told his mother he wanted to join the military. She told him to think about it. Two years later, Patricia Weaver came home to find her son meeting with a recruiter. She told the man to leave. "I said, 'I got one more year with my baby,'" she said. "It was my only child. " But her son persisted. After he graduated from El Dorado High School in Placentia in 2007, he decided to get in shape to join the Army. He lost 60 pounds, quit his job at a local grocery store and enlisted in January 2008.

It is difficult for me to understand what Microsoft has done. I have used a computer for 10 years. Never have I had any trouble with Microsoft. I have had trouble getting online; this was because AOL sold too much time, too fast to accommodate customers. Where have the antitrust boys been when my grocery store was gobbled up? Oops, there goes another grocery store! Where were they when my bank was taken over? Oops, there goes another bank branch! Not once or twice but three times.

My kids won't eat goat cheese quesadillas. They see sliced tomatoes and say "yuck." But they will eat my cheese tortellini, which are super-fast to put together. I put a pot of water on to boil, then add cheese tortellini or cheese ravioli purchased from the grocery store. They boil for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, I saute some sliced mushrooms--these are optional if you're really in a hurry. Then I top the pasta with my favorite pre-made ragu sauce and add the mushrooms on top.

Members of Southern California's grocery union have ratified a new contract with Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons, bringing an end to labor negotiations that dragged on for more than eight months and brought tens of thousands of workers to the verge of a strike. The contract, which union members voted in favor of this weekend, will help ensure that workers at the big three grocery chains will stay on the job and prevent a potentially devastating blow to the state's already shaky economy.

Paper or plastic? For shoppers in Los Angeles, the choice may soon be neither. Hoping to reduce the billions of grocery bags circulating throughout the city, an L.A. councilman Tuesday called for a sweeping ban on single-use paper and plastic bags. By including paper bags in the ban, the proposal goes beyond similar measures taken recently by other California cities and counties. Although L.A. County, Santa Monica and other municipalities have banned plastic bags in recent years, most have allowed stores to sell paper ones for a small fee. "With paper bags, you're still generating litter," said Councilman Paul Koretz, who introduced the motion proposing the ban. "We're taking the next step.