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Life & Times Transcript
9/17/07 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- It's British and has a catchy name, but why all the buzz about a new supermarket? Tim Mason>> "Our appeal is not around your social class. Our appeal is around fresh foods, less processed foods, affordable foods and easy to prepare and convenient." Val Zavala>> And then, stunning images from a master of his craft. The artistry of photographer, Edward Weston. It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val Zavala>> The supermarket business is a tough industry in southern California. It's survived a bitter strike, competition from Wal-Mart and now a new British firm is moving in, opening twelve new Fresh & Easy stores throughout Los Angeles County. They're also making promises to local communities. So will they succeed and will they keep their promises? Toni Guinyard has our story. Toni Guinyard>> Imagine being watched while you grocery shop, every purchase made, every place you go, scrutinized. It happened all in the name of research for Britain's latest import to the United States, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets. Simon Uwins>> The first thing to be said is that we've done a good deal of that research going into peoples' homes, into all different types of homes in all different types of neighborhoods. Toni Guinyard>> Simon Uwins is Chief Marketing Officer for the Fresh & Easy grocery store chain. They're taking shape across southern California's landscape from Los Angeles to San Diego. It's taken years to reach this point and the markets are making news in part because of the company's approach to doing business. Simon Uwins>> You talk to people and find out what it is they want as customers from grocery shopping and then what we do is try and design a store from there that meets that better than anybody else. Toni Guinyard>> Successful British retail giant, Tesco, is the company behind the Fresh & Easy brand. Robert Gottlieb>> Tesco is a big global player. It's the third largest in the world. It operates in twelve countries. It has a third of the market in Great Britain and, coming to the United States, it sees itself as becoming the biggest food retailer in the United States. Toni Guinyard>> Robert Gottlieb is Director of the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College. As the neighborhood markets go up, he'll be watching. Robert Gottlieb>> They've made strong promises about building stores in what they call food desert communities, low income communities that don't have a full-service supermarket close by. Tim Mason>> "Our search has been much broader than most businesses when looking to break into a market." Toni Guinyard>> Fresh & Easy CEO, Tim Mason. Tim Mason>> "And that has taken us back into some of the neighborhoods that have traditionally been under-served." Toni Guinyard>> At a press conference to announce the locations of twelve Los Angeles area markets, Mason explained the company's interest in going into so-called food desert communities. Tim Mason>> "Our appeal is not around affluence. It's not around your social class. Our appeal is around fresh foods, less processed foods, affordable foods and easy to prepare and convenient." Nelson>> That's a good day for us. It doesn't matter if they come from another country. It doesn't matter to me. If they're going to have lower prices and the same product or some even better, why can't we do that too? Toni Guinyard>> Fresh & Easy hopes to open a market at the intersection of Jefferson and Crenshaw, so we went there to talk to residents about grocery shopping and what's available to them now. Juanita Barnes>> There the prices are high (laughter) and the variety is short, so all of that is kind of bad. Toni Guinyard>> Compared to what they want. Simon Uwins>> They wanted fresh, wholesome food that's affordable and they didn't feel that, at the moment, they could get it at a level of price that they could afford. Odessa Webb>> Oh, definitely, definitely, because I'm trying to eat better, you know, get more fruits and vegetables in my diet. So it's something definitely I would be interested in. Toni Guinyard>> With the exception of disclosing the locations for these markets, Tesco executives have been downright secretive. But they have learned a lot from us. They've set up a prototype store in an undisclosed location, of course, to find out how we shop and what we shop for. I'd like to show you, but I can't because Tesco executives have a lot of things they don't want us to see or know. Tim Mason>> "It's a little supermarket, if you like. It is different when you see it. It's not landed from Mars. You won't go in and go, "Oh, my, I've never seen one of these before." It's got carts and it's got carrots and tomatoes and, you know, it's got milk. I wouldn't want to over-claim, but there are things that are a little bit different." Toni Guinyard>> Why so secretive? Simon Uwins>> Well, we want our customers in the end to be the first people that find out about our stores rather than any competitors around the place. That seems to me absolutely right and proper. Toni Guinyard>> It's also a strategic marketing move. Limiting access to information about the markets now may draw customers out of curiosity when they open later this year. Simon Uwins>> Our success is based on whether the customers like our stores or not, so we do want our customers to be the ones who will actually judge us. Toni Guinyard>> But they're being judged on past business practices. Just one day after our interview with Mr. Uwins, the report "Shopping for A Market" evaluating Tesco's entry into Los Angeles and the United States was released by the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute. Amanda Shaffer>> Tesco's main goal, like any company, is to make money and we need to remember that that really is their underlying motivator. Toni Guinyard>> Lead researcher, Amanda Shaffer. Amanda Shaffer>> It's a good thing that Tesco is going into those neighborhoods and we want them to. We've wanted all of the chains to go into under-served neighborhoods for a long time. Robert Gottlieb>> In the food access issue, we've discovered that, for the first hundred stores that they plan to roll out in the next year, only ten of them are in high poverty, low income areas and, of those ten, only three are stores that don't have full-service supermarkets close by. Toni Guinyard>> Researchers say that the site at Central and Adams is the only site in negotiation in Los Angeles that qualifies as a food desert area, but their study was completed before other Los Angeles locations being considered were made public. Tim Mason>> "Central and Adams, as I mentioned, Broadway and Manchester Avenue, Pico Boulevard and San Vicente." Amanda Shaffer>> A lot of the press coverage has been on their desire to enter into these under-served areas and we don't want people to lose sight of the other issues that we've talked about in terms of labor and the environment and the supply chain. Robert Gottlieb>> We think hiring locally is really important and it's an important promise that Tesco has made. Amanda Shaffer>> It's also important to look at the big picture of what kind of jobs those stores are going to provide, and I think the people in those communities care about that just as much as they care about having access to healthy food. Toni Guinyard>> So you'll actively recruit those people in that surrounding area? Simon Uwins>> Absolutely, yes. That's exactly what we'll do. I mean, every store will actually be having job fairs before the stores open, at that store or, if we can't put that at the store, nearby to recruit people from that neighborhood. Toni Guinyard>> And they'll be offered jobs paying a minimum of ten dollars an hour while working a minimum of twenty hours a week. Simon Uwins>> No job being less than twenty hours a week and every job over twenty hours a week will be offered affordable and broad health care with us paying at least seventy-five percent of the cost and with only ninety days qualification period both for the employee and for their family. Robert Gottlieb>> The problem with a part-time workforce is that you then can't make a living wage unless you're juggling other jobs. Toni Guinyard>> But they're saying starting at ten dollars an hour and that's higher than the minimum wage. Robert Gottlieb>> It's higher than the minimum wage, but if you translate that into twenty hours a week, that's two hundred dollars a week. That's not a living wage for someone. Toni Guinyard>> Expect the criticism to continue, but even the critics admit that they want the neighborhood markets to succeed for the sake of the community. But they also want to make sure Fresh & Easy lives up to its promises. Simon Uwins>> If we do the right things for customers, and if we do the right things to employees, then we'll be fine. We'll be successful and we'll be having another great chat in a few month's time. Toni Guinyard>> In the meantime, we'll be watching and waiting for more details about Fresh & Easy to be made public and for the public to decide if the neighborhood markets can live up to the hype. I'm Toni Guinyard for Life and Times. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> The list of problem products from China just keeps on growing. This time, it's toys. The Mattel Corporation has announced a recall of almost ten million toys, including a popular Barbie and the Polly Pocket play sets. The Mattel Corporation based in El Segundo has recalled more than fifty models of the Polly Pocket play sets and several Doggie Day Care toys and a couple of Barbies. The problem? Tiny magnets contained in the toys, magnets that the children could swallow. Mattel has also recalled some Sarge toy cars as well as some Batman action figures because the paint on the toys contains lead. To find out more about these dangers, I talked with Dr. Robert Adler of Children's Hospital Los Angeles. He's a pediatrician and was Medical Director of the California Lead Prevention project. So why is this so dangerous to children? Dr. Robert Adler>> I think we know a lot about lead exposure over the years and one of the things we know is that, although kids need a lot of vitamins and minerals to grow strong, lead is one of those that you don't need at all. Their body doesn't use lead at all, so any lead exposure has some potential danger. The problem is, it can be cumulative. So although the amount of lead in many of these toys seems very small and the opportunities for children to actually get the lead from the toys has to be them licking or sucking it fairly vigorously before it comes off or swallowing the toys which could cause a danger. Most of our concern is for the possibility that the lead will accumulate in the body from other exposures. So I think just the exposure from the toys is unlikely to cause a problem unless the child actually swallows the toy. Val Zavala>> Of course, we don't know how long these toys have been in the marketplace, so it's hard for us to gauge how much of a hazard they are. Dr. Robert Adler>> Right. It depends on how often they're tested. I think what we're learning is that other countries don't regulate the amount of lead they have in either the paint or in some of the other products they use. So we're not sure of how many exposures there have been in the past. All we do know is that the ones that have been tested that have shown positive like the toys from Mattel are concerning, again, because of accumulated burden on the kids. As we know, kids put everything in their mouth. Val Zavala>> Now the most recent recall from Mattel deals with these tiny little magnets that are in these toys. Do the magnets have lead? Dr. Robert Adler>> No. Usually they don't. I think the lead danger is very different because what they're worried about is, if you swallow two of the magnets, if they're both swallowed in close timing of each other, that if they can pinch some of the tissue internally together, they can cause both the blood flow to that area or it can cause some blockage to the intestines that can cause some problems. Val Zavala>> That's a separate hazard. Dr. Robert Adler>> It's a very separate danger to the child, but it really has to do with the two magnets pinching tissues together or causing some kind of blockage, so it's not with the lead. Val Zavala>> Do you have any idea how many children in southern California have been exposed to lead or have dangerous levels of lead in their systems? Dr. Robert Adler>> I think what's surprising to people who know about the lead in the paint, they think that that's a problem back east because of all the old housing. It turns out that Los Angeles has a lot of housing that was built many years ago, especially during and around the Second World War where we had a great influx of population as people came to the West Coast especially preparing for the Pacific war. A lot of that housing that was built at the time used paint that was by weight. Fifty percent of the white paint was made out of lead. A lot of the housing here in Los Angeles and most of us, I think, know the areas that are more affected. Certainly we think of the areas like South Central Los Angeles and many of the other areas that have old housing. But I think what people don't appreciate is that there are a lot of homes that are even in the more affluent areas which were built many years ago, classic homes, whether it's in the Pasadena area or in Beverly Hills. Val Zavala>> 1920s, 1930s? Dr. Robert Adler>> Built in the 1920s and 1930s and they're beautiful homes. They most likely used lead paint. Now what we are looking for is deterioration of the paint. If the house is kept in good condition, there's no chipping of the paint and there are no areas that are broken down, then it's a lead-safe home. What we're concerned about is the lead in the paint that chips off and chips off on the ground, especially around windows, and the kids are crawling on the floor putting their hands not only on the lead, but then putting their hands in their mouth and then they ingest the lead. Val Zavala>> So if parents suspect that their children might have been exposed to lead, what kind of symptoms should they look for? Dr. Robert Adler>> It's very unlikely for the child to show any symptoms of lead poisoning, again, unless they suspect that the child swallowed the toy. Most of that would be in the neurological area. The kids might become irritable. They might become very fussy. With very high lead levels, the kids can even become more and more lethargic to the point of even going into a heavy sleep or even coma-like episode. But that's very rare unless they get a large exposure. Most of those have been from swallowing lead-containing material. But I think, if there's any concern on the parents, the test for lead in the body is a simple blood test. They should contact their doctor and they can do it in the office. I think, if there's any concern, there's no reason for them not to contact their doctor and request a lead test. Val Zavala>> So if a child does show high or dangerous levels of lead, then what do you do? How is it treated? Dr. Robert Adler>> Oftentimes, the most important thing is to remove lead from the environment. It may be that, by doing lead testing, they might find other sources of lead in the environment which then they need to take out. Again, the most common cause is still the lead in the old paint. If that's discovered, they have to find different techniques and hire qualified professionals who know how to remove lead from the household. Mostly what we're looking for nowadays is really just to make the house lead-safe, not necessarily to remove all the lead which is very difficult and very expensive. But once we know how much lead is in the body, by removing the lead, oftentimes that's all we need to do. The body then eliminates the lead over a period of time. Val Zavala>> Oh, really? Just naturally? Dr. Robert Adler>> Just naturally. It excretes the lead through the urine, but it takes a long time. The natural process of eliminating from the body is what we rely on. Val Zavala>> So if lead is so terrible for adults and children, why is it more dangerous for children? Dr. Robert Adler>> For children who are very young, especially under the age of two, it has a much greater impact on their developing brain and their developing nervous system than it does on adults whose nervous system has already formed. But it has a profound effect on children which is life-long and that's our big concern. As it affects the brain as it's developing, it's a permanent effect and it affects them for the rest of their life. Val Zavala>> Dr. Robert Adler, thank you very much. It's really important information. Dr. Robert Adler>> Well, thank you for the opportunity to talk about the issues. Val Zavala>> For a full listing of the Mattel toy recall, consumers can go online to www.service.mattel.com and click on Recall Information. Val Zavala>> His photographs are stunning and famous. It's the work of master photographer, Edward Weston. But did you know that Weston lived for seventeen years in southern California in what is now Glendale? Although you wouldn't see much influence of southern California in his work. He was fascinated by other places. Hena Cuevas went to the Getty where there's a major exhibition of Edward Weston's work. She talked with assistant curator, Brett Abbott, about the evolution of this photographer's work. Brett Abbott>> Well, Weston was one of the most important photographers in the history of photography, probably among America's most prominent twentieth-century photographers. He began his career in Los Angeles, so it's particularly relevant to have a collection of his work at the Getty. Hena Cuevas>> Born in Illinois, Edward Weston's career began in Glendale just north of Los Angeles. The exhibition of more than a hundred fifty photographs covers forty years of his work. Brett Abbott>> He builds his career as a portrait photographer and he began with very controlled studio portraits of his friends and his family and also of clients that came in off the street. That's how he made his money as a photographer. Hena Cuevas>> One of the things that's mentioned is that he left Los Angeles and somehow wanted to break all ties with the city. How come? Brett Abbott>> Well, we'll have a lecture on that in which Beth Gates Warren explores that topic. But I think it had to do with the reception of his work, that in California his work wasn't as well as received as it was in Mexico which really excited him. That's why he went to Mexico. Hena Cuevas>> What kind of influence did Mexico have on his work? Brett Abbott>> Mexico provided him with a whole new scenery, so you see his first attempt at large-scale landscapes. In Mexico, he developed an entirely new way of looking at portraiture. He moved people outside into the sunlight and began photographing them from a low vantage point. Hena Cuevas>> One example is seen in a photograph Weston took of Tina Modotti. Weston left his wife and three youngest sons and moved to Mexico with Modotti. Brett Abbott>> Here we see a portrait of her in 1921 shortly after they first met and you really get this sort of tender connection that existed between the photographer and the subject. She is gazing directly into the camera. Her hand is up against her chest in this intimate embrace. Half of her face is shrouded in darkness. Hena Cuevas>> She was also the subject of a lot of the nudes that he took as well? Brett Abbott>> She was, yes, and she served as an interpreter for him and introduced him to a number of the artists that were working in Mexico at the time. Hena Cuevas>> Weston spent two and a half years in Mexico. There he started taking pictures not only of landscapes, but also of inanimate objects. Brett Abbott>> He comes back to Glendale in 1926 and spends about a year or two in Glendale, moves to San Francisco and then to Carmel, which is a place that he is traditionally associated with in about 1930. It's in Glendale and San Francisco and Carmel that he begins making these signature images, the pictures of peppers, the nudes that you see on this wall, other still-life subjects like shells and fruits and vegetables arranged meticulously against a neutral background. Hena Cuevas>> What would you say is the significance of the nudes that he took? Brett Abbott>> Well, what he was really interested in his nudes was the relationship of the form of the nude to the form of other objects in the world. So he is making relationships between the forms of the nude and the forms of sand dunes, vegetables, peppers, shells. Hena Cuevas>> So this dune photo matches a lot of the similar style that you see on the nudes with the shadows and the light. Brett Abbott>> Right. There are a lot of nice relationships between the pictures of the landscape and the pictures of the body, the deep blacks, the curving forms of the sand dunes and the way the light plays off the crests of the rolling hills. Hena Cuevas>> Weston was never able to publish a book about his nudes because the material was too controversial for the time. Sixty years later, the Getty Museum has put together a compilation showing Weston's favorite photographs. Brett Abbott>> The mock-up found its way into our collection in 1985 and we have published it for the first time in coordination with this exhibition. Hena Cuevas>> Well, thank you very much, Brett Abbott, co-curator at the Getty Museum, for the information. Brett Abbott>> Thank you for having me. Val Zavala>> The exhibit, "Edward Weston: Enduring Vision", is on display at the Getty through November 25. For details, you can go to their website at getty.edu. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Val Zavala>> We all know that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and Alexander Graham Bell brought us the telephone, but what about more ordinary things like the zipper or the ballpoint pen? Well, Life and Times commentator, Cris Franco, put his research skills to the test to bring us the story of one man who almost by accident invented -- I'll let Cris explain it. Cris Franco>> Let me show you how I came up with today's commentary. Whenever I get one of my many strokes of genius, I quickly jot it down on one of these. I munch on Trail Mix and ask, "Which of these ideas should I write about? Southern California Youth Buying Trends? Bed, Bath and Beyonce? Or how about Gay Politics? How the West Hollywood was won? Love behind bars, cell mates as soul mates? Or buy new socks?" Actually, that's just a reminder. Then it dawned on me. My commentaries should be on these amazing little messengers that you can stick anywhere. On someone's computer, "Oops, I accidentally erased your hard drive." On your front door, "Please steal my un-housebroken dog." On the fridge, "Eat my yogurt and you die." And am I the only guy in the world who does this? "Hi, I'm Carol Channing and welcome to Broadway Legends, Part 209." But then I started to wonder. Where did these little things come from? [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> The legend behind these amazing little sticky helpers began about twenty-five years ago when 3M employee, Art Fry, ran across an adhesive that, well, didn't work very well. It was tacky enough to stick, but not to bond with a surface. Now while a lesser man would have considered this a failure -- [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> -- not Art. He pondered this application for almost ten years. Then, divine intervention. As a member of his church choir, Art's bookmarks always fell out of his hymnal when he'd stand to sing. So Art spread the new adhesive onto little strips of paper, placed it in his hymnal and hallelujah, the world's first no-slip bookmark. Interesting. Art didn't realize that, if you wrote something on them and placed them on a report or on an object or on a co-worker, it was a new form of interoffice communications. [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> Art's boss was thrilled, but the mucky mucks weren't convinced. [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> "Too expensive to make", they said. In a leap of faith, Fry went down to his basement and built a machine that quickly and economically stacked and tucked the yellow sticky papers in the pads and began giving them away to his colleagues who immediately began requesting more and more and more. 3M had a hit. But what to call them? "Jot and Jerk", "Mount and Show", "Press and Peel Pads"? After a year of meetings, 3M decided on Post-its. Its uses have since multiplied. Murals or "I'm a pirate. I'm Patti LaBelle and I got a new attitude. I'm Emperor Tutankhamen. You may live." Our man Art Fry never got rich or famous and his invention wasn't even named after him. But in the halls of low-tech interoffice small, sticky, interpersonal, interfacing techno-world, he's a giant. Art, were it not for you and your stick-to-itiveness, we might never have had these. This one's for you. Val Zavala>> Oh, I'd hate to see what he does with staples. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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