Posted on 02/05/2014 8:52:18 AM PST by inkling
Trader Joe’s wanted to build a new store in Portland, Oregon. Instead of heading to a tony neighborhood downtown or towards the suburbs, the popular West Coast grocer chose a struggling area of Northeast Portland.
The company selected two acres along Martin Luther King Blvd. that had been vacant for decades. It seemed like the perfect place to create jobs, improve customer options and beautify the neighborhood. City officials, the business community, and residents all seemed thrilled with the plan. Then some community organizers caught wind of it.
The fact that most members of the Portland African-American Leadership Forum didn’t live in the neighborhood was beside the point. “This is a people’s movement for African-Americans and other communities, for self-determination,” member Avel Gordly said in a press conference. Even the NAACP piled on, railing against the project as a “case study in gentrification.” (The area is about 25 percent African-American.)
After a few months of racially tinged accusations and angry demands, Trader Joe’s decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. “We run neighborhood stores and our approach is simple,” a corporate statement said. “If a neighborhood does not want a Trader Joe's, we understand, and we won't open the store in question.”...
(Excerpt) Read more at ricochet.com ...
Anybody that introduces themselves as a “community organizer” should get a punch in the mouth right off the bat.
Black folk ain’t got time for Trader Joe’s.
What? Trader Joe’s isn’t giving in to extortion from the NAACP? What’s this world coming to?
I guess you cannot fix stupid afterall...
Another business goes Galt.
They would rather have a vacant lot than a nice retail grocery such as Trader Joe’s. The activists have made their choice. They prefer blight over a business which is not a black business.
You bet!...Why hell...the name Trader Joe sounds racist!
Wait, now that they decided NOT to open a store
they will be labeled........racis.
Maybe if the store was named Trader Lavonne?
In other words, Trader Joe’s didn’t want to pay up in order to do them a favor
Just another Al Sharpton hustle.
They wanted to hold-up Trader Joe’s for cash payments and other concessions in exchange for just peacefully going away.
They did the same thing to the new hockey arena here in Pittsburgh (and now have their knickers in a twist because they aren’t getting everything they thought they would)
Exactly.
Just a bunch of communist change agents...period. And they should be called that...just as McCain should have in the debates.
What a shame. I’m a big fan of Trader Joe’s. They don’t have everything I want but I can always depend of them to give me a better product at a lower price than say Pavilions or Ralph’s -
60% of the country needs an "attitude adjustment".
Yea, why have a store that would be convenient for the area and also provide jobs be of any interest when they can have an empty lot.
This one went Albrecht.
I find many communities would rather have ugly abandoned lots than a functioning store. Reminds me of the “No WAWA” signs all over PA every time the company announces it wants to open a new convenience store. It is ridiculous.
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