This is of course a thought "peace" feel free to disagree.
It has long been know that QFC is overpriced or at the least one of the most expensive grocers in the region. But it has come to my attention that they have begun picking on the most vulnerable within our community and I am singling out the experience at the QFC in Ballard [5700 24th Ave NW, Seattle, Washington - (206) 297-2150]. Prices attitudes and out right targeting of their own clientele are just some of the burdens this particular brand hides.
I have had some humbling time to spend with the homeless, elderly and orphaned youth in the area and this is what I find. First of all many who are relegated to food stamps and cannot buy heated prepared food from the deli. QFC offers an alternative which is their left over food they cannot sell from days before in small packs. Unfortunately they use the statistics obtained from the card they so generously offer for free to hike prices instead of offer bulk deals on this food. Food they would have to waste. I was told casually a time ago that the manager wants to see heaping food in the deli. That may look nice for sales but creates a wasteful excess. I observed what they are doing with the waste offering it to customers at high rates to turn a profit not in selling this bulk at reasonable prices to help a struggling economy. It is not as if Safeway, Winco, and Grocery Outlet Bargain Market offer low prices and our own Ballard market offer “real” Quality foods nearby.
I suggest a temporary boycott of this business to show them we mean business ourselves.
It is not just the prices at this store that effect the venerable either. They sell food to the homeless and offer a place to sit and these people unlike the employees working their clean up well after themselves. But, they treat these customers that pay them for services as well as everyone else with snide looks and any excuse to make them feel unwelcome. It is not just homeless either an older gentleman I know lives nearby and is bound to living in an institution cannot sit in the seating area enjoying coffee reading the paper and talking with those in the community for more than 30 minutes. Starbucks along with QFC have made big yellow signs and take pride in enforcing their policy with that same intolerant smirk especially if they look tired. We need to make a place for those people who don’t have a place to go when our libraries, public shelters, retirement homes can do only so much to provide outlets for personal esteem and benefiting the community. That is the kind of thing that is going to make our community more livable for the privileged, hard-working and those chosen to bear the burden of the past’s excess living by the upper crust.
