Metro Atlanta Publix to have signs in Spanish. Debate...

[MisterNY]

Originally Posted by smoothrat

Beyond that, it's a crutch that will cripple them from surviving, competing, and thriving in the American marketplace. Immigrants who choose not to learn English will be stuck in ethnic "ghettoes" with limited options and at the mercy of the unscrupulous. A common laguage unites us all and provides the bedrock for equal opportunity.

If my Italian and Lithuanian immigrant grandparents had never learned English, where would I be?

Very true. Great points as welll.

In south Florida it's totally different, if you don't speak Spanish in many areas of Miami (for example), you're at a dead end. You have to learn to survive to a certain extent. Good thing is that second generation Latinos eventually learn the language and assimilate.

[MB2]

Huh....Greg, you are, indeed, striking a nerve in me....on several levels then just one ! LMAO !

First, I AM a foreigner ! But, NOT Hispanic !
So, how would you feel, if I started to "demand" for everyone to speak German ??? Here in the USA ?
I learned to speak English fluently, and started to apply myself.

Next.... I live here in Florida, and hear Hispanic at LEAST twice a day ! Making me really wonder, if I am STILL in the US ? (But, I don't speak Spanish, since I always thought ENGLISH IS the language of the US ? Was I misinformed ???? )

Another factor: I am EMPLOYED by Publix.....LOL. (As a manager)
And, I can tell you, that the Hispanic population and community literally sets the "standard" and somewhat "dictates" on accommodating the Hispanic clientele which shop in our stores.

Does it bother me, when hispanics get angry at me for NOT speaking Spanish ??? YES !
Will I learn on how to speak Spanish ? NO, I have no intentions to do so in the near future.

But, it is what it is, and we are not changing a darn thing.
Instead if being disgruntled, upset over it, trying to fight it, I've learned to accept it and live with it.
It just makes me happier....lol.

Publix is privately held, do what they want to do. We also have very intelligent people within our company, doing research as well as using well thought out strategy in the planning (no matter what it is and which sector).
So far, we (as in Publix) has an excellent track record, including the financial aspect of the company as well.

So, if they think it will be in our best interest to offer everything in the Spanish language.....it must be.
On a note: other companies AND places have done so for many years, offering signage in Spanish and/ or other languages and caused very little controversy and debate.

[Atlantasfinest]

Not only signs in Spanish but not there will be a Latino-Centric Publix! I'm guessing they want to solidify their market share of Latino business and this will be a great way to stop a Sedanos and other Latino-Centric smaller stores from trying to compete.

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/...id=inform_artr
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“Do you have the sombrero? Has it arrived yet?”

It’s not the kind of question a grocery store manager overseeing the final details of a renovation would normally expect from a contractor. But for Marco Guillen, it’s all in a day’s work.

Guillen is the point man on Publix Super Markets’ newest experiment —- the first store outside the company’s home turf in Florida designed to appeal to Hispanic shoppers.

The Norcross store, located in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood that Census records show is predominantly Mexican in origin, features bilingual signs and shelves stocked with more than 1,500 new Mexican and Central American items brought into the store in recent months.

Where Hispanic foods were once isolated in a single aisle, they’re now spread throughout the store. Dried guajillo chiles are piled in a box in the produce section. Jarritos soft drinks take up shelf space near Coke and Pepsi products. Foca power detergent is near the Tide. Colorful pinatas are scattered throughout.

“We really had to go out and challenge our suppliers to go out and get us items that are traditionally Mexican. Not Mexican-American, but Mexican,” said the company’s Atlanta spokeswoman, Brenda Reid.

The store also features a salsa bar, deli items meant to appeal to the Hispanic palate and an expanded number of Western Union terminals, popular with Hispanic immigrants sending money home. About half its employees are bilingual, recruited from Publix stores all over metro Atlanta, Reid said.

The store has been slowly rolling out the changes for months. It formally debuts today with a grand opening featuring a mariachi band and other festivities.

The effort is rooted in rising Hispanic buying power and increasing competition from ethnic groceries that cater to the fast-growing Hispanic and Asian communities, Reid said.

Hispanic buying power in Georgia has grown by 1,037 percent since 1990, outstripping the 194 percent growth for the overall market by more than five times, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.

Hispanics now account for 5.1 percent of Georgia’s buying power and are projected to outpace the growth by all other ethnic groups, according to the center.

A spokesman for Kroger, metro Atlanta’s leading grocer, said his company hasn’t explicitly labeled any one store to appeal to a specific demographic. But Glynn Jenkins said the company adjusts each store’s product mix to appeal to local tastes.

Guillen said the changes at his store have gone over well with both Hispanic and non-Hispanic customers. The store’s bright new color palette and the fact that the store only eliminated a handful of unpopular items to make way for its new Hispanic product mix continues to bring in customers of all stripes, he said.

But not everyone is happy. Some Gwinnett residents feel the bilingual signs are too much.

“I will not support any business that is trying to elevate Spanish to a level equal with English,” said Loretta Jakubowski of Lilburn. “I find it to be insulting to Hispanics and divisive to the community.”

But Ralph Hererra, who owns the Hispanic-oriented marketing company The Lanza Group, said Publix is likely to hit the target with its efforts.

The company has experience marketing to Cuban-Americans in its home state of Florida, and will likely hit the right tone to make its Norcross store appealing to metro Atlanta’s increasingly economically important Hispanic population, as well.

“I believe they will probably be able to pull it off,” he said. “They’re certainly in the right place.”


http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/pri...id=inform_artr

[StPaulEastSider]

Good business is all about good customer service. If a significant number of your customers are most comfortable reading signs and packaging printed in Spanish, then it makes sense from a business standpoint to cater to your customers. Not doing so may significantly hurt business.

Try thinking of this in reverse. If you lived in a spanish-speaking country, and spoke some spanish, wouldn't you still feel more comfortable, and more likely frequent, a store which had at least some of their signage and packaging in English? You may know how to converse and read Spanish, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't prefer shopping someplace where you don't have to go through the extra step of translating everything.

If a Publix and a Kroger are located across the street from one another, and one has signs in both Spanish and English, while the other only has English signs... which one do you think gets more of the native-speaking Spanish business??

[MB2]

Originally Posted by StPaulEastSider

Good business is all about good customer service. .........................................Try thinking of this in reverse. If you lived in a spanish-speaking country, and spoke some spanish, wouldn't you still feel more comfortable, and more likely frequent, a store which had at least some of their signage and packaging in English? ........
If a Publix and a Kroger are located across the street from one another, and one has signs in both Spanish and English, while the other only has English signs... which one do you think gets more of the native-speaking Spanish business??

Kudos to you, because you hit it right on the button !
Signs and customers speaking Spanish don't bother me anymore, since I've gotten so use to it. (First, I have to admit, it was a bit strange....huh )
It's keeping an edge in the market...when everyone else is failing, trying to cater to the other, growing populations here in this country.
This is the change of time, my friends...and if one can't be flexible and open- minded......they will ultimately end up in big trouble and sacrifice big $$$ because of it.
Times have changed, the market has changed, customers and clientele have changed.
We are in food retail, and customer service. So, the customers demand and dictate, WHAT the consumer trend and style is, ....and what they want.
So...Publix is going ahead, and trying to "speak" to all it's diversified clientele.
I think it's a great approach, and I know so many other's will follow suit, or have done so already.
You'll see.......this change is not that bad, in order to keep the economy going and people (like me) employed.

[jeffreda30238]

I don't think it's that big of a deal. If you travel to other countries like I have, they have things translated in English as well as in their language (i.e. Spain). What if they decided to say "why can't Americans just learn the language?" You have to look at the bigger picture here. As Americans, sometimes I think we get it twisted, like the rest of the world owes it to us to accomodate us, but we don't have to accomodate anyone else, and that is where we fall short and make enemies.

[Tiger Beer]

ARE YOU SERIOUS? There is actually a DEBATE in the city of Atlanta about this? A MAJOR U.S. city, and one that I thought had some kind of international status?

I am an American who has lived all over the world...and everywhere you can imagine has ENGLISH signs almost no matter what...and you also see a range of international different languages...even here in Japan, I see English everywhere, and to a lesser extent CHinese and Portuguese. WHen I was living in Korea, it was the same with English everywhere, and to a lesser extent Chinese.

Now...back in my home country..a city of ATLANTA is having a debate about a major world language like Spanish??? WTH?

[StPaulEastSider]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Now...back in my home country..a city of ATLANTA is having a debate about a major world language like Spanish??? WTH?

The reason this is a "debate topic", I STRONGLY suspect, is the fact this "debate" feeds into .... Rush Limbaugh’s Immigration Laws

For all ya dittoheads who believe Liberals love to misquote Rush... please follow the above link to the YouTube video of Rush's cigar-waving "Immigration Laws Rant"

THE TRANSCRIPT...

“All right, immigration proposals under discussion. Let me add mine to the mix. I want to call this proposal the Limbaugh Laws.

…First, if you immigrate to the United States of America, you must speak the native language. You have to be a professional or an investor. [America is] not going to take unskilled workers

…There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools, no special ballots for elections, no government business will be conducted in your native language. Foreigners will not have the right to vote…nor will they ever be allowed to hold political office. According to the Limbaugh Laws, if you're in our country, you cannot be a burden to taxpayers. You are not entitled, ever, to welfare, to food stamps, or other government goodies. You can come if you invest here, but it must be an amount equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage. If you don't know have that amount of money, you can't come and invest. You have to stay home. If you do come and you want to buy land, okay, but we're going to restrict your options. You will not be allowed to buy waterfront property in the United States. That will be reserved for citizens naturally born in this country.”

“In fact, as a foreigner, you must relinquish individual rights to property… Another thing. You don't have the right to protest when you come here. You're allowed no demonstrations, you cannot wave a foreign flag, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his policies, or you get sent home. You're a foreigner. You shut your mouth or you get out, and if you come here illegally, you go straight to jail and we're going to hunt you down 'til we find you.”

“I can imagine many of you think that the Limbaugh Laws are pretty harsh. I imagine today some of you probably are going, "Yeah! Yeah!" Well, let me tell you this, folks. Every one of the laws I just mentioned are actual laws of Mexico, today.I just read you Mexican immigration law. That's how the Mexican government handles immigrants to their country.”

Oh listen, my dear son, to the sound of Rush Limbaugh's SHEEP... "BAH, BAH, BAH, BAH, BAH"

BLAH!

PLEASE NOTE: AMERICA DIDN'T VOTE FOR A RUSH TO FAILURE !

[jeffreda30238]

Originally Posted by StPaulEastSider

The reason this is a "debate topic", I STRONGLY suspect, is the fact this "debate" feeds into .... Rush Limbaugh’s Immigration Laws

For all ya dittoheads who believe Liberals love to misquote Rush... please follow the above link to the YouTube video of Rush's cigar-waving "Immigration Laws Rant"

THE TRANSCRIPT...
Oh listen, my dear son, to the sound of Rush Limbaugh's SHEEP... "BAH, BAH, BAH, BAH, BAH"

BLAH!

PLEASE NOTE: AMERICA DIDN'T VOTE FOR A RUSH TO FAILURE !

LOL...what's funny about this is that he probably has "unskilled" workers cleaning his home and doing the landscaping at his home....too funny.