Workers were the business news this week

My first jobs were selling pizza, adult videos and groceries.

OK, one of those stood out. When I was 16 I worked for West Telemarketing in Omaha, Nebraska, doing inbound calling. One of the products I took calls for was the "Girls Gone Wild" series that was ubiquitous in the 1990s.

I also worked for Papa Johns, during which time I thought that doubling toppings would make the customer happy. It didn't. The pizzas turned into soup.

My teenage jobs also landed me at a Hy-Vee, which is a grocery store chain in the Midwest. I nostalgically remember my time wrangling carts, bagging groceries and stocking shelves.

Oh, it was mundane when I was doing it. However, soon after I left that job and to this day, I do have an appreciation for grocery stores that I didn't have before. I have an enjoyment for shopping because I'm there to shop, and I know how much work it took to keep those boxes lined up correctly, to arrange the milk by expiration date and to keep shopping cars out of shopping spaces.

This week, some of the most impactful stories on the business desk weren't in Outlook, but instead on the front page of the Journal.

Reporter Mathew Narvaiz reported on the local impact when the Kroger and Albertsons merger fell apart. He also wrote about the dozens of local creatives are being laid off from Meow Wolf.

Local grocery store representatives told us the news of the failed merger brought a sigh of relief. Particularly, the union representing those workers said it has had better outcomes negotiating with Albertsons compared to Kroger. The merger would have led to the sale of nine Albertsons Market stores, including four in Albuquerque, to grocery distributor C&S Wholesale Grocers.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez was among the officials who argued the merger would have hurt New Mexico shoppers because it reduced competition.

Meanwhile, Narvaiz also reported that some of our local creatives are losing their jobs. Meow Wolf is a gem of New Mexico, a great place to take our friends and family when they visit. We talked to one laid off employee who was upset about the direction of the enterprise.

We'll be monitoring both those stories going into the next year. Meow Wolf is a contemporary display of art, which is part of the fabric of New Mexico. And we all need groceries.