Some Interesting Wegman Facts

I almost fell off my chair when I read the following comment by 'John,' (#3) to a story located here:

"Unfortunately, the grocery stores have flooded the market place with propaganda that has misinformed consumers. Cornell University did an independent study that forecasts that liquor stores sales will lower wine sales by 33%, which is a conservative estimate. I think anyone with common sense can determine that if you lose a third of your sales and your fixed cost of operating your store stay the same, you are going out of business quickly.
Selling potato chips and twinkies will not make up for the sales losses. Governor Patterson and the grocery stores are offering products that liquor stores have no space on the floor to sell, as they need to maintain their rack space for the wine, which now sells at a right of 33% less. Not to mention that nobody is going to buy the twinkies.
In the end, consumers will lose, especially those that prefer spirits over wine. Consumer selection will decline, NYS wine will be removed from the shelves, and the price of Jack Daniels and other liquors will skyrocket. And lets not forget that thousands will lose their jobs because the grocery stores will not hire one additional person.
This debate needs to get past consumer laziness. Why should grocery stores be provided any further unnecessary benefits? Below is a transcript of the damage grocery stores are having on the NYS economy:
http://www.wxxi.org/ntk/Transcripts/2009/0424.html
The investigative report aired on PBS Radio. The claim is that Wegmans received $204 million in taxpayer funded financing with their consideration being job creation. The report from David Cay Johnston determined that Wegmans created one full-time job as a result of the tax break, not living up to their obligations. This behavior is not limited to Wegmans, but everyone taking the free pork under Empire Zones.
More troubling is how the grocery store executives utilize lobbying for personal financial benefit. One of the leaders trying to reign in the “Death Tax” is the Wegmans family. Despite media accounts of banging drums, reports show only 18 families are petition Washington to not have to pay their fair share of taxes. Here’s the report:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/EstateTaxFinal.pdf
Noted special in the report, the Wegman family actually applies the lobbying cost to not have to pay personal taxes to their business. They are one of only two companies doing this. If you put two and two together, that seems to suggest we are paying an extra nickel for bread and milk to pay for the Wegman family’s efforts to not have to pay their fair share of taxes.
So, should we give them more? Absolutely not. The license are a one-time fee and don’t take into account maintenance cost in the long-run not does it take into account the Medicaid and unemployment costs of the people that lose their jobs. There are numerous costs associated with the proposal, it is not a net gain of $100M.
If grocery stores really want the wine, then lets get them to payback the state for also the tax break benefits they’ve unproperly received that have allowed them to price gouge mom-and-pop with lower prices because they elminated a major cost line on the income state…its called taxes.
Wegmans can get it started by extending their commitment to rescind all current tax breaks, cut a check for the $204 million in inappropriate taxpayer abuse and agree to pay their taxes both on their business and personal bank accounts like the rest of us New Yorkers."

Comment by John — February 1st, 2010 @ 10:48 am

 Amazing!  Sounds like rape and pillage time against all New Yorkers by the privilaged class to me.