Owning Our Future

TENROOTED MEMBERSHIPOwnership in Living Hands

“I was at my old job at Safeway for 18 years, and I had one bonus in those 18 years, for 50 pounds (US$82),” Emma tells me. When that store closed a few years back, this 30-something woman, mother to one young daughter, took a job down the street at a Waitrose near King’s Cross station. She and I are standing inside that store and talking on this particular day, not far from the queen’s palace in London. The store is part of a chain of UK supermarkets owned by the John Lewis Partnership (JLP). Emma works as a clerk on the floor, tending the cash register and straightening shelves. For that job at Waitrose, she gets a bonus every year; a recent one totaled 2,000 pounds (US$3,264). “I spent some on ...