Stores remain open despite strike

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Monday, Oct. 13, 2003 | 11:01 a.m.

LOS ANGELES -- Parking lots were less crowded and checkout lines were noticeably thinner Sunday at supermarkets across Southern California, where striking grocery workers refused to go back to work and urged customers to shop elsewhere.

Thousands of grocery employees waved picket signs and chanted pro-union slogans while three of the region's major supermarket chains hired replacement workers to keep stores open, staffed and stocked.

Some customers crossed picket lines Sunday, but were rarely hassled.

"I sympathize with (the workers) but food is a necessity," Dave Browning, 34, a land surveyor in San Diego, said after loading his trunk with grocery bags from Ralphs. "They gotta do what they gotta do. Their union is doing its job. I'm doing mine."