A case for government-run grocery stores
In recent news, Kroger, America's 3rd largest grocery chain, formally announced that they will shutting down around 60 locations this year, with one of these locations being the nearest grocery store to me. Also in recent news, NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is campaigning on the idea of opening city-run grocery stores as a major part of his platform. More on that later.
With the local grocery store closure happening at some point this month, the anger and concern of residents here have been frequently making their way into local news and into town hall meetings. And their concerns are plenty valid. From that location, there are only two other grocery stores left that serve this densely populated area, one being inaccessible by bus line (without at least one transfer) from the ones that already serve the Kroger, and the second one being almost 20 city blocks (about a mile and a half) away.
To make matters worse, this Kroger serves a low-income area. That's right SW, your dearly beloved TinyViolins is a mere peasant. But to paint a clearer picture, what I see when I drive by this store is young parents with young children, often more than 1. I see elderly folks who move like they're dragging boulders. I see the sick and disabled confined to wheelchairs or oxygen tanks. I see aging, worn-out prostitutes and their pimps who surprisingly look nothing like the pimps in pop culture. I see homeless people and junkies loitering, and sometimes scrounging, like scattered flotsam around the economic center of this neighborhood, this grocery store.
And to be fair to the company, theft is a major concern both in and around the store. Public safety is something one is always conscious of when deciding to shop here. When prisons are already overcrowded, a shoplifter or addict simply isn't a top priority. It may as well be a Mecca for petty crime, which is unfortunate, but there are lots of cracks in impoverished areas and many people to fall into them. In any case, liquor in particular is a very prized commodity among our criminal community. I always have a difficult time picking up libations at this location.
However, the store is still profitable. It's frequently sprawling with shoppers. It's not like they're not making money. The core purpose of their business is being satisfied in this instance. And even if one wanted to address or at least curtail the issue of theft, getting rid of the alcohol would get you most of the way there without impacting people's need for essentials.
The crux of the problem, as I see it, is that Kroger, being a publicly traded company, has investors to appease. Despite making a profit at this and several other locations, it's very likely that they were not seeing the kinds of large margins they want to see from these stores.
See, many Kroger locations offer much more than simply groceries. There's a bakery department, a seafood department, there's furniture and clothes and greeting cards, etc. Many low-income people simply aren't going to spend a lot of money on fish or furniture or premade cheesecakes and tiramisus. The store model is simply disconnected from the needs and habits of consumers in their area. But rather than adjust their store model to boost their margins and chase profitability in other ways, they simply decided to screw over the neighborhood and their employees and abandon them without any contingency plan. In essence, they've created a food desert.
Now onto Zohran Mamdani, whose plan for city-run grocery stores are motivated primarily to address food deserts as well as high grocery prices. A noble endeavor by most standards, but can it successfully accomplish its goals is the main question. One whose answer could sink or float his entire political career.
There is precedent for government-run grocery stores in the US. There have been a few in Kansas, Florida, and Illinois attempting to serve rural areas disconnected from other options. To date, all of these stores have either closed or been sold off due to operating costs and financial struggles. Certainly not inspiring news for the people of New York City.
There are also examples of tribal grocery stores being run by the Choctaw and Potawatomi in Oklahoma, but the community structure of federally recognized indigenous tribes are a bit different from the rest of the nation. It may just be that these tribes want to keep their money within the community rather than allowing a national chain to extract funds to their corporate HQ.
The most successful instance to date is that of military-run grocery stores, otherwise known as commissaries. Every branch of the military is allowed to operate these stores on military bases both at home and abroad to meet the needs of service members and their families. Even though they have the ample backing of the US Department of Defense, these stores actually are well-received by our soldiers and veterans alike according to everything I've read. It could serve as a base model for how NYC wants to operate.
The one advantage that Mamdani has in his plan is sheer scale. The previous instances of publicly run grocery stores in the US took place in rural, sparsely populated areas. They had a very small pool of shoppers to sustain them, which doesn't usually bode well for perishable goods. In New York, however, you can't even pass gas without a dozen people smelling it. It's one of the most densely packed places on the planet and there will be no shortage of foot traffic to help these stores bring in money.
But let's say for argument's sake that we know for certain the store is going to be a financial failure. What then would be the benefit of setting up shop in a food desert?
See, the thing is that people have to eat regardless. Our bodies require nutrition, and sometimes that comes in the form of chips and soda from the local corner store. Sometimes that's a Big Mac or a bucket of chicken or whatever food abomination Pizza Hut is selling. Sometimes that's Top Ramen or hot dogs or whatever shelf-stable easy-to-prepare items people can afford. If one is unable to or can only access grocery stores with great difficulty, those options are simply going to be a lot more convenient and available.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out what the end result of a highly-processed, high caloric, low nutrition diet will be. Obesity, heart disease, diabetes, probably other chronic diseases. And indeed, there are correlations and associations with these health problems when it comes to living in food deserts. Those health problems have many lasting consequences for later on in life. Shorter life expectancy, inability to work, reliance on government assistance, medical debt, straining public health resources, you name it.
There is a social cost to not having access to fresh, nutritious food. And maybe certain people in food deserts will be willing to brave the extra hoops and hurdles from traveling further to obtain their nutrition and maintain their health, but it takes extra time and energy that working parents or the elderly or disabled may be too constrained to pursue. How many blocks is okay for an old grandma to be carrying groceries? Idk.
But this is now an issue that my community will be forced to contend with. In low-income areas, it's rare for new businesses to want to set up shop due to the low potential for growth, hesitancy from banks to give out loans or investors to pour capital, and likely increased operating expenses from redesigning and remodeling the old store to fit the new format. Many storefronts simply remain abandoned for years as a blight on the community that it once serviced. I fear that this is going to be yet another example of that. There are currently no plans to repurpose the soon to be vacated business front.
I'm lucky enough to have my own means of transportation and can make the longer trips if need be, but I know there are many others that aren't as fortunate and will have new challenges to contend with as they try to feed themselves and their families. I, for one, am not very hopeful for their chances considering there's a McDonald's right across the street from their grocery store.
With the local grocery store closure happening at some point this month, the anger and concern of residents here have been frequently making their way into local news and into town hall meetings. And their concerns are plenty valid. From that location, there are only two other grocery stores left that serve this densely populated area, one being inaccessible by bus line (without at least one transfer) from the ones that already serve the Kroger, and the second one being almost 20 city blocks (about a mile and a half) away.
To make matters worse, this Kroger serves a low-income area. That's right SW, your dearly beloved TinyViolins is a mere peasant. But to paint a clearer picture, what I see when I drive by this store is young parents with young children, often more than 1. I see elderly folks who move like they're dragging boulders. I see the sick and disabled confined to wheelchairs or oxygen tanks. I see aging, worn-out prostitutes and their pimps who surprisingly look nothing like the pimps in pop culture. I see homeless people and junkies loitering, and sometimes scrounging, like scattered flotsam around the economic center of this neighborhood, this grocery store.
And to be fair to the company, theft is a major concern both in and around the store. Public safety is something one is always conscious of when deciding to shop here. When prisons are already overcrowded, a shoplifter or addict simply isn't a top priority. It may as well be a Mecca for petty crime, which is unfortunate, but there are lots of cracks in impoverished areas and many people to fall into them. In any case, liquor in particular is a very prized commodity among our criminal community. I always have a difficult time picking up libations at this location.
However, the store is still profitable. It's frequently sprawling with shoppers. It's not like they're not making money. The core purpose of their business is being satisfied in this instance. And even if one wanted to address or at least curtail the issue of theft, getting rid of the alcohol would get you most of the way there without impacting people's need for essentials.
The crux of the problem, as I see it, is that Kroger, being a publicly traded company, has investors to appease. Despite making a profit at this and several other locations, it's very likely that they were not seeing the kinds of large margins they want to see from these stores.
See, many Kroger locations offer much more than simply groceries. There's a bakery department, a seafood department, there's furniture and clothes and greeting cards, etc. Many low-income people simply aren't going to spend a lot of money on fish or furniture or premade cheesecakes and tiramisus. The store model is simply disconnected from the needs and habits of consumers in their area. But rather than adjust their store model to boost their margins and chase profitability in other ways, they simply decided to screw over the neighborhood and their employees and abandon them without any contingency plan. In essence, they've created a food desert.
Now onto Zohran Mamdani, whose plan for city-run grocery stores are motivated primarily to address food deserts as well as high grocery prices. A noble endeavor by most standards, but can it successfully accomplish its goals is the main question. One whose answer could sink or float his entire political career.
There is precedent for government-run grocery stores in the US. There have been a few in Kansas, Florida, and Illinois attempting to serve rural areas disconnected from other options. To date, all of these stores have either closed or been sold off due to operating costs and financial struggles. Certainly not inspiring news for the people of New York City.
There are also examples of tribal grocery stores being run by the Choctaw and Potawatomi in Oklahoma, but the community structure of federally recognized indigenous tribes are a bit different from the rest of the nation. It may just be that these tribes want to keep their money within the community rather than allowing a national chain to extract funds to their corporate HQ.
The most successful instance to date is that of military-run grocery stores, otherwise known as commissaries. Every branch of the military is allowed to operate these stores on military bases both at home and abroad to meet the needs of service members and their families. Even though they have the ample backing of the US Department of Defense, these stores actually are well-received by our soldiers and veterans alike according to everything I've read. It could serve as a base model for how NYC wants to operate.
The one advantage that Mamdani has in his plan is sheer scale. The previous instances of publicly run grocery stores in the US took place in rural, sparsely populated areas. They had a very small pool of shoppers to sustain them, which doesn't usually bode well for perishable goods. In New York, however, you can't even pass gas without a dozen people smelling it. It's one of the most densely packed places on the planet and there will be no shortage of foot traffic to help these stores bring in money.
But let's say for argument's sake that we know for certain the store is going to be a financial failure. What then would be the benefit of setting up shop in a food desert?
See, the thing is that people have to eat regardless. Our bodies require nutrition, and sometimes that comes in the form of chips and soda from the local corner store. Sometimes that's a Big Mac or a bucket of chicken or whatever food abomination Pizza Hut is selling. Sometimes that's Top Ramen or hot dogs or whatever shelf-stable easy-to-prepare items people can afford. If one is unable to or can only access grocery stores with great difficulty, those options are simply going to be a lot more convenient and available.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out what the end result of a highly-processed, high caloric, low nutrition diet will be. Obesity, heart disease, diabetes, probably other chronic diseases. And indeed, there are correlations and associations with these health problems when it comes to living in food deserts. Those health problems have many lasting consequences for later on in life. Shorter life expectancy, inability to work, reliance on government assistance, medical debt, straining public health resources, you name it.
There is a social cost to not having access to fresh, nutritious food. And maybe certain people in food deserts will be willing to brave the extra hoops and hurdles from traveling further to obtain their nutrition and maintain their health, but it takes extra time and energy that working parents or the elderly or disabled may be too constrained to pursue. How many blocks is okay for an old grandma to be carrying groceries? Idk.
But this is now an issue that my community will be forced to contend with. In low-income areas, it's rare for new businesses to want to set up shop due to the low potential for growth, hesitancy from banks to give out loans or investors to pour capital, and likely increased operating expenses from redesigning and remodeling the old store to fit the new format. Many storefronts simply remain abandoned for years as a blight on the community that it once serviced. I fear that this is going to be yet another example of that. There are currently no plans to repurpose the soon to be vacated business front.
I'm lucky enough to have my own means of transportation and can make the longer trips if need be, but I know there are many others that aren't as fortunate and will have new challenges to contend with as they try to feed themselves and their families. I, for one, am not very hopeful for their chances considering there's a McDonald's right across the street from their grocery store.
31-35, M
