UFCW 3000, the biggest private-sector union in the state representing 56,000 grocery, cannabis, and retail workers, gave its sole endorsement to Katie Wilson for mayor at a press conference outside the Fred Meyer in Lake City Tuesday afternoon.
UFCW 3000 held off on endorsing in the primary, but an announcement from Kroger, the chain’s parent company, to close this store and three others over “low sales” appears to have pushed them into the race. When this store closes, Lake City will lose its one full-service grocery store and become a food desert.
Three of those four stores are in low income communities. According to UFCW 3000, these closures mean the loss of over 700 jobs. These are also just the latest regional closures from Kroger. In July, the big bad grocery kingpin put a Tacoma F