Who’s to Blame?

In an Oct. 26 letter by Maggie Weber and 250 disgruntled employees of Gemco, financier Asher B. Edelman was faulted for threatening to make a tender offer for the purchase of Lucky Stores, Gemco’s parent corporation.

Weber and the others fail to find any blame with the current management of Lucky for allowing the company to fall into such disrepair that it has become worth more dead than as a surviving entity.

They also fail to realize that current Lucky officers, in order to preserve their own jobs, ordered the liquidation of Gemco stores rather than allow the company to be taken over by Edelman.

But most of all, they do not see that the ultimate reason for the closure of Gemco is that the employees, along with the union representing them, have insisted on wages far beyond what discount stores can sustain.

If Edelman had not made an offer for Lucky, inevitably it would have died a natural death, suffering from the same symptoms that have caused the demise of W. T. Grant, The Akron, White Front, FedMart and Zodys all within the past decade.

TERRY R. REITER

Chief Executive

California Digital Inc.

Carson