By TOBIAS HAAG
Los Alamos

I found this letter interesting for a variety of reasons. I have a few perspectives on why LA County decided to allow the only Smith’s Marketplace in New Mexico to operate in Los Alamos. It should be noted that I am not a Smith’s employee, and my comments do not represent the beliefs of the organization.

I have worked in retail and retail management for 17 years, split evenly between Los Alamos and surrounding areas. I am going to say some things that will undoubtedly irritate some of you readers, so please understand I am in no way a representative of Smith’s or Kroger.

My first thought is property taxes. An estimate of Smith’s Marketplace based on average blueprints of other Marketplaces is around 55,000 sq. ft., and when I worked there when the new store was being built, the property was hailed as a $30M investment. Based on those assessments, I would estimate a good ballpark annual property tax figure somewhere around $150k-$200k per year.

That’s a good chunk to go towards county projects, schools, and infrastructure improvement. How much of that actually goes into those projects?  That is hard to say, but most schools in Los Alamos have undergone renovations in recent years, or as we see in White Rock, are building new schools. $150k-$200k may not seem like much for some of these projects that are in the millions of dollars, but it probably helps more than the average annual residential property tax of around $2k-$3k.

Plus, Smith’s either still owns or recently sold the old property across the street, and I am sure that was a good chunk of money as well for property taxes to the county. But even if you are just looking at the Marketplace, in the last 11 years since it opened, the county most likely accrued $1M-$2M of property taxes from Kroger.

My second thought is that it’s a no-brainer with Los Alamos median income. In 2023, the average median income in Los Alamos was $136,816, and the rest of NM came in at $62,268. For a business like Kroger, that was an easy decision when it came around to where to put it. Follow the money. Keep in mind, just because a new building went up in 2014, doesn’t mean that Smith’s hasn’t been the dominating grocer in town for many years. Even when it was Safeway, then eventually Furr’s, that building was the place to go for groceries. Now, I worked there when it was Furr’s and later when it was Smith’s, and do you know what the number one complaint theme was when I worked there?

“This place is too small, it’s too tight, the aisles are too small, etc.” So, people can’t have it both ways. You can’t complain about a lack of space to shop and then complain that there is a building that is essentially too big for a town this size.

My third thought was that at the time, the investment of a Marketplace correlated with the prospect of more jobs for Los Alamos residents. Which, let’s be real … no one has ever said, “Hey, I hear there is this great supermarket in Los Alamos, I want to work in that town because of ‘that’ business!” Sure, it provided more job opportunities, but working in the service industry in this town is a nightmare.

For a town with residents with a lot of money from the main government organization in town, the customers are very hard to satisfy. There has always been a high sense of entitlement, and along with that comes attitudes that do not support the average service industry worker here (unless you’re a bartender lol). If you are offended by that statement, you probably are one of those people. Why can I say this? Because I have worked in the service industry in this town in some form for years. When I went to work in Santa Fe for Sprouts Farmers Market, and eventually Target, the difference was night and day. Sure, there are always going to be difficult customers, but as I said, there is an entitlement that exists in Los Alamos that makes it very hard to work in the service or retail industry.

To give you one more example … when I worked at Target during COVID, there was a time when the State mandated a certain amount of people in the store at one time (along with masks, but that was a whole other thing. If you’ve never been yelled at or threatened by a customer for asking them to put a mask on for 30 minutes of shopping, then I don’t want to hear it. My co-workers and I worked 8-12 hours each day having to wear those things THE ENTIRE TIME, and on top of double the workload due to increases in demands on home-based goods, it was awesome to get yelled at, or have things thrown at you, or told they would meet you outside after work, just for asking someone to put a mask on). We were essential until we were not essential anymore lol.

Back to my example, during the restrictions on the number of customers, there was a day that my store manager and I received a call to come to the front of the store. My manager asked why, and the response was that there was someone that needed to come in the store to shop. Fair enough, that’s why people want to come in stores, but there was a limit of people that could be in the store at that time, so the answer was no. The response made me laugh, probably more so because I am a resident. Our clerk said, “Well, he says he is from Los Alamos, so he needs to come in.” My manager, who was from Texas, just gave me a funny look and again told the clerk to tell the customer no.

Now, this was one customer, and you could very well argue this gentleman does not represent the entirety of the town. My response to that argument is that this town is very much a soapbox where people love to tell everyone how they work for LANL, and they make $80k-$100k for a job that is around $45k in the private sector. But that is a whole other subject. I worked for PTLA for 6 years, and I have my own thoughts about what people do or don’t do during their workdays at LANL. I am sure some of you readers are thinking “Hey buddy, if you don’t like it, then leave.” I’ve thought that many, many, many times myself. I stay for the same reasons many of you do … safe community for my kids and schools are decent. Now that my kids are all almost grown, I look forward to leaving.

But, that brings me to my main point – It is almost impossible to survive in this town working for a service or retail business. When my first son was born in 2002, I worked two jobs (Aramark from 5AM – 1PM, then Central Avenue Grill from 2PM – 10PM). My wife stayed home for a while to care for the kid, which made sense because there is a toss up between paying for daycare or staying at home. But, even in 2002, working two full-time jobs was barely enough to get by … and my rent at the time was $575 lol. Now, the average rent or mortgage payment in Los Alamos is $1,308 in rent and $2,146 in mortgage (and this was two years ago). The average retail or service worker makes ~$12 per hour, with some employees at Smith’s floating around $15-$16 per hour depending on the area.

Time to bring out those math skills we all learned 20-30 years ago as Hawks or Hilltoppers lol … 40 hours a week (assuming one gets 40 hours because many retail businesses shy away from that because of overtime and benefits, yada yada yada) x $15 an hour = $600. Most Smith’s employees are paid weekly, and by the time deductions (eg. Medical benefits, union dues, taxes, deductions, etc.) are removed, that $600 looks more like $400. So, monthly, your average retail worker is making a net income of about $1,600. What was the average rent two years ago??? $1,308. A single resident in no way or form can comfortably afford rent in Los Alamos working just ONE retail job. And that just factors in rent, not car payments, food, gas, insurance, credit card payments (because you need one to survive, mind you), basic living expenses, etc.

If you have shopped at Smiths recently, you will have noticed a good number of employees most likely commute up to work from Espanola, Pojoaque, or surrounding areas (and God Bless them for doing it). I don’t even work there and I can name probably most of the employees that live in Los Alamos in about 10 seconds. That wasn’t always the case, but Smith’s went through hundreds of employees in the last 11 years. Primary reasons – pay doesn’t support sufficient cost of living, the workload never stops, constantly understaffed due to reasons one and two, and various other smaller issues. And at the end of the day, all the hundreds of thousands of units of products that find their way on to store shelves require a set of hands to do it. The hundreds of thousands of price tags and thousands of weekly sales tags requires a set of hands to hang them. At the old store, every three days, store freight would drop off 20-30 pallets of just grocery and general merchandise. The new store gets deliveries more days than that, and if I had to put a guess on it, I would say 5 grocery/GM deliveries per week, ranging from 10-20 pallets per delivery.

There was a time at the old store when I was down to three overnight stockers because strangely enough, not a lot of people here want to work overnights. In a store that averaged $1M in sales per week, that was a ton of work for three people. The new store obviously makes more than that, I would say an average of $1.5M per week. This sounds like a lot of revenue, but after you factor in Gross Profit Margin (Cost of Goods, most supermarkets fluctuate around 3%-5%), Operating Margin (Labor, Utilities, etc.), Tax revenues, and miscellaneous expenses, your $1.5M looks more like $50,000 of profitable net revenue per week, if that.

So, here is your final equation to look at … (Average cost of wages ($12-$15) x Excessive workloads due to understaffing x Unachievable cost of living prices x Having to commute 15-30 miles to work fighting all the LANL traffic (which is a nightmare in itself) = a very tough working environment. That doesn’t mean the store is hard to work at, that means that sustaining the type of workload combined with external factors is brutal. Your knees take a beating, your back hurts every day, your hip is counting down the days until its replaced, you can barely afford to do anything fun, shoppers are constantly complaining about you or your work area even though they have no idea what it takes to consistently maintain conditions, and above it all, you’re stuck here in Los Alamos because the alternatives are not great either (e.g. Walmart in Espanola, a casino, the County if you can get hired, one of the few restaurants around, a similar business in Santa Fe). Granted, lately LANL seems to be hiring just about anyone, but there  eventually will come the day when the Federal Government assesses the actual need for a lot of those employees, and just like that, those people will be back in reality with the same people they complain about and trying to find a job in the same environment. And trust me, when I went from making $65k a year at PTLA to $9.50 an hour at Smiths in 2009, that was a gut check. Granted, that was my own doing thanks to substance abuse and mental health issues, and I had A LOT of maturing to do, but I still had to find a way to survive and take care of my family.

The overall moral of all this rambling … if you don’t like the lines, or the product on the floor, or the lack of assistance because of understaffing, and rising prices to come thanks to the tariff sheriff, then what solutions would anyone like to propose? I can hear them now…

“Well, Smith’s should simply hire more people!” Great suggestion. From where? Surely not this town. Who wants to give up a job at LANL or LA County to work at a retail business? Who wants to suggest to their high schooler to go push carts or bag groceries, or after 18, work another department? I did, my son worked there for two years, he did just fine before leaving for the Air Force. Or, if you work for LANL or LAC, suggest to your significant other to go work retail. C’mon, we both know that’s not happening. The ones that work there that fit that criteria have already worked there for many years.

“Well, Smith’s should just simply pay their people more!” Great idea, but unfortunately more $ per hour does not equate to better work in retail, or any business for that matter. And again, despite the store appearing like a juggernaut that just breeds sales, when you get done dissecting every $1 made, there is about $.02 left, maybe $.01. And if they wanted to pay their people more, there is only one commodity those wages could come from, which is to raise prices, and we all have seen how people feel about that right now. The only other way to raise wages is to cut hours so that your Average Hourly Income is higher, but then you’re left with angry employees that only get 25-30 hours per week, then their benefits are affected, and the cycle continues.

“Well, Los Alamos should just have more businesses!” Agreed. It should. The high median income of this town should equate to more business, but then they all run into the same problems as Smith’s.  Lower wages, high cost of living, higher cost of commercial rent space per square foot, understaffing, etc.

My point is that no one is going to come to the rescue. If Los Alamos residents want to see service industry conditions improve, then they are going to have to encourage their loved ones to get out there and work. If you work at LANL, or LA County, you’re probably not going to transition to retail or small business, but what about your spouse or your kid? If your 22-year-old is parked at home playing Fortnite or Call of Duty all day, and you allow it, don’t bother complaining. There were 8,741 housing units in Los Alamos and 19,444 residents back in 2023. 25% of those residents were under 18, and 18.6% were above 65, so that left about 56% of eligible workers in LA. So, let’s say that 50% of that 56% of those people now work at LANL or LAC, that leaves 6% (19,444 x .06 = ~1,166 residents between 18 and 65) that potentially could help throw some freight, or monitor a register, or stack some apples. Just saying, if you’re not a part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem.

If you don’t have family to volunteer their services, then all I can say is just be grateful. Be grateful to that clerk trying to finish his freight in the aisle from last night because someone called out and he or she has been awake since 8PM the night before. Be grateful to the Self-Checkout employee trying to run 6-12 machines and getting hollered at all day to check your ID or fix a price. Heck, even be grateful to that 16-year-old surfing TikTok in the cart corral while he or she is supposed to be getting carts because hey, at least that person is out there working. Be grateful that you have a position or circumstance that allows you to drive the car you want to drive or live in the house you want to live in, or take those trips on three-day weekends to somewhere farther than ABQ, because many of the people you are asking to step up to the plate and serve you don’t have that. If your response is “well that’s not my fault, they could go get a better job”, then you’re still right back in the same situation with the people that choose to work there.

The only solution is the same solution the country needs right now, which again, involves the fact that no one is coming to magically save you. The government will play their stupid games and get rich off you in the process, but they won’t help you in localized issues. The one- and only-way things will get better is when communities collaboratively decide that everyone needs to work together to improve conditions. I’m not saying fill out an application for your grandma because you want to save 30 seconds in line, and she’s not doing much at the moment. I am not saying to tell your wife to get off Pinterest or Etsy and go throw some freight overnight because then those pickles you wanted would be in-stock and you’d get free range of the bed five nights out of the week. Wives, I am saying you can probably say whatever you want to your husbands because you’re all scary, and if you want to tell your husband to go cut deli meat or fry some chicken tenders, he should probably listen.

Realistically, I am saying the tools and resources (aka eligible resident workers) are there to build a better community, whether that involves a giant behemoth of a supermarket or 50 small businesses. And when that happens, and we support those who work in our small businesses and service industry, we are supporting our family, friends, and community and surrounding communities. Younger people will have more opportunities for growth and development to aid their progression as they move into young adulthood. Tiktok ain’t going to do it, IG or Meta ain’t going to do it, YouTube TV won’t provide them with a special set of skills other than how to effectively waste time. They’ll turn around and before they know it, they’ll be 30 wondering what happened. If you truly want to prove that Los Alamos is better than other places, then I would say start by figuring out how to work as one community instead of those at LANL or LAC, and then those other people we don’t talk about.