A week into the Stop & Shop strike, both sides are settling in.
Employees of the Westport store are among 31,000 employees picketing the supermarket chain in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The issues include healthcare, wages and pensions.
Many Westporters seem to be honoring the strike. Passing drivers honk and flash thumb’s-up signs. The Post Road East parking lot is almost empty.
But that’s had a ripple effect on businesses that share the shopping center plaza with Stop & Shop.
Lori Brower — general manager of Kindred Spirits & Wine — says that while she supports the striking employees, her business has been impacted greatly as shoppers avoid the plaza altogether.
“We are a small family owned-business,” she notes. “Our tight-knit staff also needs to provide for their families.”
General manager Lori Brower, flanked by (from left) wine manager Dan Weaver and assistant manager Andrew Werner.
She hopes people realize that her company has nothing to do with Stop & Shop.
And that folks who park in the shopping center lot are not necessarily crossing a picket line.
They may just be her customers, looking for a nice wine for Passover or Easter.