Posted on 11/12/2007 8:52:24 PM PST by Lorianne
Where are the grocers? Chicagoans have been asking that question for some time now.
Supermarkets followed middle-income families out of urban areas and into the suburbs 40 years ago, said Andy Fisher, executive director of the Community Food Security Coalition, a Los Angeles-based non-profit dedicated to helping low-income people get better access to nutritious food. But, indeed, the situation is steadily improving: grocers are returning to city neighborhoods that are gentrifying.
Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Strack & Van Til, Garden Fresh Market and a yet-to-be-named entrant owned by Roundy's are vying against dominant players Jewel-Osco and Dominick's.
Specialty delis and corner markets have popped up in rapidly growing areas such as the South Loop, West Loop and River East.
Dominick's, which has closed 26 Chicago area stores in the past three years, is upgrading its remaining stores into a lifestyle format that features expanded offerings of organic and ready-to-eat foods, as well as upscale delis and bakeries and expanded produce and floral departments.
A Dominick's spokeswoman noted that the retailer opened a grocery store in the North Lawndale neighborhood, at 3240 W. Roosevelt Rd., nearly eight years ago that was the first grocer in that neighborhood in decades.
Jewel-Osco is opening new stores in the suburbs and ex-urbs, but recently closed a store at 3033 S. Halsted in the Bridgeport neighborhood, eroding grocery shopping options for people in the "food desert" just east of Bridgeport.
Some grocers arrive amid controversy A few grocery store chains are opening stores in under-served neighborhoods, but residents often disapprove of them as sub-par.
Andy Witherell, president of Witherell Real Estate, said the unsung hero of bringing groceries to inner-city neighborhoods is Save-A-Lot, a value-oriented limited assortment grocery store owned by Jewel-Osco parent Supervalu.
"They've opened more stores on the South Side in the past eight or nine years than anyone," said Witherell, who finds sites for grocers.
Save-A-Lot operates five Chicago stores, at 4701 South Cottage Grove Ave., 3939 W. Ogden, 420 S. Pulaski, 7240 S. Stony Island and 7908 S. Halsted. It recently opened a store in Gary.
Another grocer, Food 4 Less, a division of Kroger, has opened two stores, one in the Englewood neighborhood at 71st and Ashland, and the other in the Back of the Yards community at 47th and Damen.
Food 4 Less operates on a low-cost model compared with full-service supermarkets. Shoppers bag their own groceries, products are kept in cut-out boxes rather than stacked one by one on shelves, and there are no loyalty cards.
Aldi, based in Batavia, operates stores in Garfield Park, Humboldt Park and Pilsen, and will start building a store in December at 67th and Cottage Grove.
The retailer plans to open a store on the Near West Side, on the southeast corner of Madison Street and Western Avenue, when the developer obtains the property, an Aldi spokesman said.
Aldi also will open a store in November 2008 across the street from Chicago's only Wal-Mart in the Austin neighborhood. The Aldi will be built on an outlying lot of a Menards home store that will open late next year.
Another grocer, Ultra Foods, is looking to open in Chicago, a spokesman said.
Independent grocers also fill key niches, including Pete's Fresh Market, Cermak Foods, Carniceria Jimenez and Supermercado El Guero.
Indeed, Chicago is considered a leader in trying to overcome its food desert because of Retail Chicago's efforts to attract grocers to underserved areas, and a groundbreaking city ordinance that bans "restrictive covenants" that would prevent grocers and drugstores from moving in when major rival chains move out.
Witherell said he finds it ironic that residents object to value-oriented grocers offering fresh produce and foodstuffs where nothing would otherwise exist.
"It's about making money. ... It is difficult for a typical supermarket to be successful in areas where incomes are lower," he said.
Residents rebelled against Grand Mart, a new entrant into the Chicago market that closed two of its stores less than a year after opening them. A columnist for the Austin Weekly newspaper led a boycott of Grand Mart in that community because he claimed it lacked African-American foods.
Groceries, squeezed by fierce competition and razor-thin profit margins, are concerned about the cost of building a store in a high-crime urban neighborhood, especially since it takes five to 10 years to plan, site and build a store, Witherell said.
Gallagher's study shows that nearly a third (31 percent) of the 203,369 households in Chicago's food desert make more than $50,000 a year.
Once a full-service grocery store comes into the food desert, others will follow because they prefer to compete head-on, Gallagher said.
"Grocers would rather steal business from other grocers than enter a wide-open market that they perceive as uncertain," she said.
There’s an NGO for grocery stores?! WTF?!!
"And we can't figure out why no grocers came in to take their place!"
Residents rebelled against Grand Mart, a new entrant into the Chicago market that closed two of its stores less than a year after opening them. A columnist for the Austin Weekly newspaper led a boycott of Grand Mart in that community because he claimed it lacked African-American foods.
Groceries, squeezed by fierce competition and razor-thin profit margins, are concerned about the cost of building a store in a high-crime urban neighborhood, especially since it takes five to 10 years to plan, site and build a store, Witherell said."
Oh boy. More discount megamarts.
Ya cant find a real butcher or greengrocer anymore. bakery’s? forget it.
Why would a chain go into a high crime neighborhood, meaning extra costs off the bat, knowing such neighborhoods are thick with liberal moonbat "activists" who will make demands making the business impossible to open or at best unprofitable? And why would an indie, mostly owned by whites or Asians, open there with the near certainty the "activists" will label them "racist" and endanger their investment???
Liberals got exactly what they wanted in these neighborhoods, a world free of "the corporations" and guess what - there's nobody to sell food in that world!
I know. Let’s make a law that forces business to open stores in areas where they cannot make a profit. LOL! Yeah, that’ll work.
when your customers steal more from you than they buy, it’s tough to continue in business..check out the Meadows shopping center in Indianapolis....now a wasteland because of their clientele!!!
This reminds me of the time some city tried to force taxi drivers to pick up fares in high crime areas. I don’t remember how that one ended.
The shoplifting in these areas is rampant. Not only that, but shoplifters often become violent when confronted. How can you run a store under those circumstances, and who would want to work there?
Andy Fisher has been the executive director for the Community Food Security Coalition for 10 years
National Legislation: CFSC advocates for federal policies that promote community food security and provide resources for community-based initiatives. Past successes include creation and increased funding of the Community Food Projects grants, as well as support for the Farmers Market Nutrition Programs.
Program Implementation: After policies are passed, CFSC works to ensure they are fully funded and implemented in accordance with their original vision.
Fisher’s efforts have led to a new food and agriculture movement around food security and new federal programs that grant millions of dollars to community based groups for nutrition and food-related projects.
According to Andy Fisher, Executive Director of the Community Food Security Coalition, this movement, which has flowered in the past seven years, seeks to democratize food production and distribution by localizing food, using more sustainable and health-promoting practices, and meeting the needs of underserved communities.
Andy Fisher is co-founder and executive director of the Community Food Security Coalition, a national alliance of 325 organizations working to create a just and sustainable food system. The CFSC’s most recent policy victory was the passage of a farm to cafeteria seed grant fund in last year’s Child Nutrition Act reauthorization.
My advice for those complaining of lack of neighborhood grocers is to stop complaining and start their own business.
WASHINGTON, DC (March 13, 2006) – The Community Food Security Coalition announced today that 240 organizations from across the country have signed a letter requesting a $5 million appropriation from Congress for “Access to Local Foods and School Gardens,” Section 122 of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act.
Better known as “Farm to Cafeteria,” funding for this program, which is authorized in the current Child Nutrition Act
Andy Fisher is co-founder and executive director of the Community Food Security Coalition
“So, how do we get to that place where the food system is just and sustainable— where we have a Permaculture President who turns the White House lawn into an organic farm?”
In the Pacific NW, there ia a chain called WinCo. Their prices are generally 30$ or more less than the well known national chains. They are always busy with people buying lots of product.
I vividly recall my first trip to a grocery store in a low income part of Los Angeles. Not a mom ‘n pop, but a chain store. It was in the late 80’s, and I had never seen a store requiring an armed guard (common now to see guards in all areas). The aisles were closed off at the ends, like a maze, in such a way to herd the customers through the store so they couldn’t escape with merchandise. This was because people stole everything not tied down, apparently. Needless to say, I forever more appreciated my own neighborhood stores that were comfortable, safe places to shop. Where I could open a bottle of pop if thirsty and the store staff didn’t blink an eye as they knew it would be paid for at the register, without fail.
I then visited a Marshall’s Department Store in an adjoining area with probably more income than the grocery store location, but still considered a low income area.
The clothes were thrown on the floor, lipstick, food and makeup smeared on many items, and the plastic wrappers had been torn off the boxes of perfume and the boxes torn open so people could sample them (they couldn’t put testers out, as people took them). The question remains how does a retailer have any motivation to open stores that will be vandalized? And why does low income have to equate destruction? Did people in the Depression all go around ruining products and stealing? I don’t think so.
And if they did carry some, said columnist would whine that they were sterotyping.
A few years ago a grocery chain here in Orlando (Publix) advertised a special on MLKing's birthday - for fried chicken .
Lord, you'd think they hung nooses in the stores or something there was so much complaining about it.
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