The new Wild Oats franchise that opened in Westport on 3 March is owned by Wild Oats Markets, Inc., which owns and operates more than 100 health food outlets in the US and Canada under a variety of local names.  The new store is substantially larger than the Food for Thought outlet next door, a health foods store that Wild Oats Markets sold to a holding company called Grange Investments, Inc. in the summer of 2000.  The sale came some two months after employees of Food for Thought had voted for representation by Local 371.  Approximately 65 employees of the Norwalk Food for Thought outlet are still represented by Local 371 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents more than 15,000 workers.  The approximately 110 employees of the Westport Wild Oats store do not have union representation.  Since the purchase of Food for Thought by Grange Investments, eleven of its employees have been laid off, many within weeks of the acquisition.  

Local 371 has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board claiming that Wild Oats Markets has engaged in a number of unfair labor practices, including harassing Wild Oats employees who wanted to vote in favor of a union.  Ronald Petronella, Executive Vice President of Local 371 also indicated that former employees of the Norwalk Food for Thought were allowed to apply for jobs at the Westport Wild Oats market, but they were told that their applications would be placed in a "special folder" - and that they were not likely to be hired as a result.  "People thought they had a right to join a union, and in exercising their right to join a union this is their payback for doing that", he said.  In its fliers being handed out at the picket line, Local 371 claims that Wild Oats Markets provides substandard wages and working conditions, including, according to Petronella, no overtime for Sunday work, no medical benefits and only a ten-minute break after six hours of work.

According to records obtained from Dun & Bradstreet, Grange Investments, Inc. was formed as a private company in 2000, and had half of its estimated $31 Million in 2000 revenues from the Norwalk Food for Thought outlet.  Grange Investments purchased three additional stores from Wild Oats Markets in October 2000.  Randy Clapp, the President of Grange Investments, was one of the founders of Wild Oats Markets and retired after sixteen years of service before assuming the presidency of Grange Investments.  Wild Oats Markets, Inc. is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.  Grange Investments, Inc. is headquartered in Lafayette, Colorado, a town adjacent to Boulder, Colorado.

Mr. Petronella claims that the relationship of Wild Oats Markets, Food for Thought and the recent events is more than coincidental.  "We see this as an alter ego situation," he said while manning the picket line in front of the Wild Oats outlet.  He says that the union has documentation showing that the new Wild Oats store was stocked with goods that were stored at the Food for Thought outlet.  "If you were going to buy a natural food store, and you have a bigger one opening up next to it, would you do it?"

Greg Corda, a manager at the Wild Oats store in Westport, also sees this as an issue centering around union organization efforts.  "We're a non-union company," he said, "and they don't like us.  Period.  They want our guy's dues, and they're not getting them."  He says that the protests may have had some impact on store sales, "But we have no way to gauge it, it's a brand-new store."

Wild Oats Markets brought in more than $830 Million in revenues in 2000, but finished the year with an operating loss.  In an effort to compete more effectively in the increasingly crowded market for healthy food products, Wild Oats has been shifting towards building larger stores, typically with more than 40,000 gross square feet - the size of a typical supermarket.  Their strategy is to become a "category killer", offering "natural" alternatives to most every item carried in a typical grocery store, in addition to a broad array of prepared eat-in and takeout foods. 

As to whether Wild Oats will be a union killer as well has yet to be seen.  "We're hoping that Wild Oats will give us a call and try to negotiate a settlement.  We'd like them to bring their standards up, even if they don't go union," said Mr. Petronella.  As to whether the demonstrations have been effective, Petronella is optimistic. "I think that it's been going well," he said.  "We have spoken to Food for Thought customers who have tried out Wild Oats, and have gone back to Food for Thought.  They know the people at Food for Thought and they are sympathetic to their cause."

5/11/01 John Blossom

Coming soon: a related Fairfield County Bee article.

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