In San Francisco, the Rainbow Grocery Cooperative has been around since the 70s. While working in the food industry in San Francisco, I had heard that employees there made in the ballpark of 100k~ a year, but that's purely hearsay and I have no idea how accurate it is. Before Bay Area tech workers chime in with how even 100k~ is effectively unlivable out there, I'll mention that I lived on about 25k a year in the Bay Area between 2010 and 2017, and lots of people -- food and service workers, teachers, warehouse workers, delivery drivers -- scrape by on similar or less, with no benefits or equity. You might be surprised how many restaurants and bars and grocery stores in the Bay hire their cashiers, busboys, dishwashers, and cooks as contractors, or pay them cash under the table.
Back on topic: there's also the Cheese Board in Berkeley, CA, and Arizmendi Bakery but not sure if the salaries are as great. There used to be a great bakery in South Berkeley that was worker owned and fairly well known, but the name is escaping me (edit: it was Nabolom Bakery). In any case, that one struggled more with the business side and employee salaries were close to minimum wage.
Another aside: it's interesting to me how lots of tech workers in the Bay Area live in an entirely different Bay Area than me or most people I knew out there -- these two worlds seem to scarcely talk to each other in any meaningful ways.
I'm curious about the pay at Arizmendi but not that curious. The Oakland Arizmendi started taking tips towards the end of last year on a trial basis (and of course it stuck around), so I can't imagine the workers are getting paid too well. Then again they're pretty reasonably priced.
I'd say up until early/mid-2022 or so you could get by on a surprisingly small amount of money in San Francisco. Watching prices skyrocket over the past 18 months or so has been a wild ride.
Another aside: it's interesting to me how lots of tech workers in the Bay
Area live in an entirely different Bay Area than me or most people I knew
out there -- these two worlds seem to scarcely talk to each other in any
meaningful ways.
Publix is complicated. One family controls about 30% of the shares, and the company has done things (like donate lots of money to conservative PACs) that many employees are unhappy with.
Back on topic: there's also the Cheese Board in Berkeley, CA, and Arizmendi Bakery but not sure if the salaries are as great. There used to be a great bakery in South Berkeley that was worker owned and fairly well known, but the name is escaping me (edit: it was Nabolom Bakery). In any case, that one struggled more with the business side and employee salaries were close to minimum wage.
Another aside: it's interesting to me how lots of tech workers in the Bay Area live in an entirely different Bay Area than me or most people I knew out there -- these two worlds seem to scarcely talk to each other in any meaningful ways.