Vons Grocery Co

Contract negotiations between representatives of Southern California's three largest supermarket chains and 65,000 union workers continued at a secret location Thursday. But as the give-and-take continued for a second day, there was no word of any breakthrough. New proposals had been delivered to the Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons chains, United Food and Commercial Workers spokesman Mike Shimpock said, but he offered no details.

Calling it an early holiday present, the head of a Studio City residents' association celebrated Thursday when Vons Grocery Co. announced that it will purchase a Ralphs market in Studio City, one of 19 stores that the Ralphs-Hughes chain must shed for antitrust reasons. Vons announced that it will acquire eight stores, including five in the San Fernando Valley, one in Camarillo and two in Orange County. The cost of the deal was not announced.

As Southern California's grocery workers union readies for a strike vote Sunday, there are already efforts to restart negotiations with the big supermarket chains, possibly as soon as Wednesday, according to people familiar with the negotiations. Talks broke off Thursday between the United Food and Commercial Workers union and Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons over a contract for 65,000 workers.

Safeway is negotiating the sale of its stores in Southern California to Vons Grocery Co., sources close to both companies said Wednesday. Industry sources said not all of the 244 stores in Safeway's Southern California division would necessarily become part of Vons. As many as 50 stores could be closed and others sold, sources said. Such a sale would also intensify the supermarket war in Southern California and perhaps give Vons an edge in its battle with Ralphs for first place.

When Wilfred L. Von der Ahe Jr. arrived in this struggling Sierra town 16 years ago, just about everybody saw gold. After all, he was the wealthy scion of a storied Los Angeles family: founders of the Vons Grocery Co., devout Catholics lauded by the Vatican for their charitable giving, and power brokers who presided over the finest country clubs. He seemed to be just what Mariposa needed: a deep-pockets savior.

You can tell a lot about a place by knowing a little about the people who started the best-known businesses there. The knowledge tells you, for instance, what it has taken to succeed and survive in the local economy. Although Southern California is sometimes accused of having a short memory about its past, not all its businesses have been flashes in the pan. In fact, it has no shortage of long-established, successful companies.

A Ventura County jury on Friday awarded $18 million to a Vons clerk who claimed he was fired because he said a female supervisor sexually harassed him. James Stevens, now 48, filed a lawsuit in 2004 alleging that a supervisor, Laura Marko, had taunted him daily with sexual gestures and remarks. Stevens said Marko suggestively held a feather duster between her legs and made crude statements regarding his body.

Two of Southern California's leading "supermarkets" -- a term that caught on nationwide -- started out as two little family-owned grocery stores. Ralphs and Vons are part of huge corporations today with tens of thousands of workers and front-page labor troubles. But they brought their founding families a measure of regional immortality. George Albert Ralphs -- with an S and without an apostrophe -- was born in Joplin, Mo., in 1850.

Vons Cos., Southern California's largest supermarket chain, plans to grow bigger by heading north. It agreed to acquire 18 stores of the Santa Maria-based Williams Bros. Markets chain for about $48 million, the companies announced Tuesday. "We view the acquisition of Williams Bros. as an important addition to our existing store network," said Roger E. Stangeland, chairman and chief executive of Arcadia-based Vons.

Union leaders representing 65,000 grocery workers on Tuesday broke off contract talks with Southern California's largest supermarket chains in a dispute over health insurance. The breakdown in negotiations may push the United Food and Commercial Workers union and Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons closer to a repeat of the bitter strike and lockout that turned Southern California grocery shopping into disarray for nearly five months beginning in October 2003.

Southern California's three largest supermarket chains and the grocery workers union resumed talks Monday with both sides urging harmony. Negotiations broke down April 4 amid escalating tensions over the threat of a strike by the union and an employee lockout by the companies. Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons are negotiating with the union to craft a new agreement for its 65,000 workers. It will replace a contract that originally was set to expire March 5, but has been extended twice.

A Ventura County jury on Friday awarded $18 million to a Vons clerk who claimed he was fired because he said a female supervisor sexually harassed him. James Stevens, now 48, filed a lawsuit in 2004 alleging that a supervisor, Laura Marko, had taunted him daily with sexual gestures and remarks. Stevens said Marko suggestively held a feather duster between her legs and made crude statements regarding his body.

The Vons supermarket chain is taking scissors to its double coupon policy. The division of Safeway Inc. has eliminated double coupon redemptions at about 200 supermarkets in Southern California in recent months and plans to kill the promotion at the remaining 100 stores in its core market of Los Angeles and Orange counties this spring. That's bad news for Kathy Makowski, an Irvine grocery maven whose children roll their eyes when she starts talking about coupons.

Labor advocates Monday accused some Vons supermarkets of continuing to pay janitors illegally low wages, moments after a federal judge approved the $22.4-million settlement of a class-action lawsuit that had accused Vons and two other grocery chains of such violations.

Three major supermarket chains have agreed to pay $22.4 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by janitors who said they were illegally classified as subcontractors and systematically underpaid at hundreds of Southern California stores. The money will be split among at least 2,100 janitors who worked at Albertsons Inc., Ralphs Grocery Co. and Safeway Inc.'s Vons supermarkets from 1994 to 2001.

Until his two young daughters became seriously ill after eating contaminated hamburgers at a nearby Jack in the Box restaurant, Joseph Dolan of Kent, Wash., never doubted that any meat was fit to eat. Meat is inspected by the government, he knew, stamped with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's seal of approval. "You just assume everything is safe," Dolan said.

Vons and Ralphs supermarkets are offering a new incentive for hungry insomniacs and any others who find it difficult to get to the grocery before midnight: around-the-clock shopping chainwide. Lucky Stores, too, has been testing a policy of staying open 24 hours a day in six stores since February and might extend the strategy throughout its Southland locations.

Talks aimed at ending the Central and Southern California supermarket strike and lockout, described as "intense" by the union, continued for a 10th straight day Friday, and one analyst said a settlement could be "only days away." Extending the longest streak of talks since the labor dispute began more than four months ago, negotiators for the United Food and Commercial Workers union and the three grocery chains involved continued meeting under the supervision of federal mediator Peter J.

Stocks of the supermarket chains in the Central and Southern California labor dispute rose Thursday as investors speculated that the long strike and lockout could soon end. The shares of Safeway Inc., the parent of Vons and Pavilions; Kroger Co., which owns Ralphs; and Albertsons Inc. climbed 1% to 3% as the chains' negotiators met for the ninth straight day with union officials and a federal mediator. Negotiations were expected to continue today.