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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Chicago: Poorer areas hungry for supermarkets
  • Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 12:37:55 -0600

chicagotribune.com >> Business
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Poorer areas hungry for supermarkets
Large chains, which generally offer higher quality food at cheaper
prices than mom-and-pop stores, tend to favor expansion in affluent
neighborhoods

By Rhasheema A. Sweeting
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 6, 2004

For most North Siders, a trip to the grocery store is simply another
errand that needs doing.

But for too many residents of the South and West Sides, that same task
is a long-distance trek that drains precious time and money.

Big grocery stores are few and far between in Chicago's inner city. The
reasons are complex and charged with issues of race and class.

But experts agree on at least this much: The shortage is taking a toll
on the already-strained finances of low-income city residents and
damaging their health.

The latest airing of the controversy came last week as the Chicago-based
Women in Planning and Development hosted a downtown forum that explored
why the city's low-income neighborhoods remain underserved by big
grocers.

While Chicago's population is almost precisely divided into north and
south along Madison Street, the division is far from equal when it comes
to the 86 stores of major grocery chains such as Jewel-Osco, Aldi, Cub
Foods and Dominick's.

The North Side has 50 percent more such stores than the South Side,
according to the not-for-profit Metropolitan Chicago Information Center
research group.

The result: Chicagoans with the least amount of disposable income shop
at smaller neighborhood stores and pay considerably higher grocery
prices than more affluent North Siders or suburbanites do.

"The poor pay more," said David Livingston, head of DJL Research, a
Wisconsin-based retail consultant.

Big chains buy in huge volume, which allows them to squeeze the lowest
prices from their suppliers, and then pass those lower costs on to
customers.

But "when you're a smaller retailer, you pay more for your products"
said Constance Buscemi, spokeswoman for the city's Department of
Consumer Services. "That price is passed on to the consumers."

Besides being more expensive, the food on the shelves of mom-and-pop
stores often is subpar as well, said William Peterman, a Chicago State
University professor emeritus of geography.

At the heart of the dispute is a question phrased two ways: In opting to
build few stores in Chicago's lower-income areas, have the big chains
made a legitimate business decision that profit prospects simply do not
justify the investment?

Or are the grocers, as numerous critics contend, staying away because
their corporate decision-making is marred by racial stereotypes, flawed
economic data and a dedication to a business model that works in
suburbia but will not directly transfer to the inner city?

"They're typically gonna go where there's room for population growth and
more affluence," says Livingston, the retail consultant.

If they were willing to tweak the giant-store-with-a-giant-parking-lot
format that they use in outlying areas, he contends, the major food
chains could probably turn a profit in lower-income urban settings. But
that would require innovative thinking, he says, and "it's easier just
to not go to the inner city."

Most corporations "don't like to be pioneers," observed Ruth Wuorenma,
president and founder of Neighborhood Capital Co., an Illinois
not-for-profit research and policy firm that offers planning and real
estate development advice.

"They need to see companies that look a lot like them within the
community," she said, adding that in lower-income neighborhoods "there
is a lack of comparables."

Rides from friends

At last week's Women in Planning and Development forum, speakers shared
personal experiences with the audience of about 150 community activists,
labor union representatives and local residents.

Angela Sims, now a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at
Chicago's College of Urban Planning, recalled that as a child she and
her parents used public transportation and rides from friends to make
the long trip from their South Side Chatham neighborhood to the closest
major grocery store.

"We ate healthy as a result of my parents' sacrifice," Sims said. "It
was really arduous, but we did it."

Chatham has since acquired its own major grocery store, a Dominick's.
But many other neighborhoods are still fighting to get one.

The success stories tend to be in areas that already are on the mend. In
the predominantly African-American Near West Side community where the
Chicago Housing Authority operated the Henry Horner Homes public housing
complex, for example, the nearest major grocer was two miles away, and
years of effort to bring in a major grocer had failed to bear fruit.

Now, a big portion of the Horner complex has been demolished and is
being replaced by a mixed-income development known as Westhaven Park.

With the help of the city, the community will break ground this year for
a grocery store and other retail outlets at Madison Street and Western
Avenue.

"We focused on creating an environment to be attractive to retailers,"
said Pat Dowell, executive director of Near West Side Community
Development Corp.

The development group, which builds affordable single-unit housing, was
part of an effort that successfully brought a Walgreens drugstore to the
neighborhood in 2001.

"Retailers are beginning to recognize Westhaven," says Dowell. "The area
is ripe for a grocery store."

Case-by-case choice

The grocery chains respond to criticism by saying they consider each
neighborhood on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the population
and its potential for growth, the availability and cost of land and the
level of competition.

"There's no one-size-fits-all," said Wynona Redmond, spokeswoman for
Dominick's, which operates 19 stores in the city. "We look at every
community on an individual basis."

A lot of neighborhoods still are waiting to be looked at by any big
grocery chain.

"Food is a basic source for life," said Pat DeBonnett, executive
director of the Greater Roseland Community Development Corp., a
non-profit group devoted to bringing business to several Far South Side
neighborhoods. "Therefore, access to the supply is vital to people of
every race." Copyright (c) 2004, Chicago Tribune

Hannah Burton
Program Coordinator
The Food Trust
1201 Chestnut St 4th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107
[p] 215-568-0830 x33
[f] 215-568-0882
[e] hburton@thefoodtrust.org

The Food Trust: "Ensuring that everyone has access to affordable,
nutritious food"
www.TheFoodTrust.org <http://www.thefoodtrust.org/>
The Future of Our Food and Farms
www.foodfarm.org

Building Strong Communities Through Healthy Food




  • [Livingontheland] Chicago: Poorer areas hungry for supermarkets, Tradingpost, 06/21/2004

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