Letters to the Editor: Grocery workers are hurting. Grocery chains are making billions. Why?

To the editor: As I read the article about Kroger grocery workers struggling to afford food and housing, I was reminded of the old joke, “There are two kinds of people — those who think there are two kinds of people, and those who don’t.”

In this case, I think there must be.

One kind is outraged and saddened when they read that “more than two-thirds of Kroger workers struggle to afford food, housing or other basic needs,” and then, at the very bottom of the article, that “the country’s three largest grocery providers, Walmart, Kroger and Albertsons, earned an additional $6.8 billion in profit in the first three quarters of 2020 compared to 2019 — an average increase of 98%.”

The other kind feels that as long as Kroger’s stock is doing well (and it is), it’s all good.

Sad to say, but I guess we know which kind is in charge of economic policy in the U.S. We can do better, but we choose not to.

Sid Smolen, Laguna Niguel