The Urban Land Institute, a major urban planning organization, has an article about increasing urban gentrification (think the opposite of the White Flight) and the demand for urban grocery stores. Smaller grocers are out and big, chain companies are fighting to get into this market. Minneapolis, my hometown, has medium sized grocers popping up everywhere, with a large Target in the heart of the city.
I encourage you to read the article. Its well written and explains what's going on today.
What are the implications of increased commercialization in urban centers? Is this good or bad for the city?
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ReplyDeletedefinitely interesting and valuable as a way to support more environmentally friendly movement in cities (walking and public transit over cars), though clearly the implications for local store owners vs. large scale business are far less clear cut. Could groups of smaller businesses band together to form this sort of indoor walking mall/urban grocery center in a way that would be at all competitive with the large national chains?
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see mixed-use development continuing to grow. The article alludes to people making daily rather than weekly shopping trips as well, which I think will allow a lot more people to eat healthier, tastier food. There should be a pretty significant economic boost to the neighborhoods and lower per capita infrastructure costs.
ReplyDeletePark St. Market on Vine St. is an interesting case of new, small, locally owned grocery stores coming back, although my understanding is that it is actually owned out of Lansing. I also believe it was built specifically to increase food access on the North Side, which is pretty dismal right now.
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ReplyDeleteI can't imagine these types of shopping centers having inexpensive food, considering the new design and the locations, so the assumption that people will shop daily seems a little unrealistic to me.
ReplyDeleteAlso this reminds me of Irving's on the Mall downtown. It has a deli/cafe/sort of bakery, a very local feel, super friendly people, and just enough inventory (never overstocked), which makes me want to frequent it more often - but once again, price is what stops me from that.
Park Street Market is highly subsidized. It is really difficult to have a "real" market rate grocery store in a low/moderate income area. If you think about Meijer's or Walmart or any big grocery chain near your home or near K, they tend to be on the outskirts of city proper near highway access. This maximizes their market size and helps to minimize their logistical costs (costs of getting food and other commodities into the market).
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that most of us will agree that improving the sustainability of our cities will require more urban grocery stores... and the kinds of grocery stores that the article described are pretty cool, albeit uppity and incredibly expensive. (I'd be really interested to see the one in that's independently owned in Minneapolis!)
ReplyDeleteThe Park Street Market is a sad case to me.. clearly, it's imperative that the residents of the Northside have access to groceries... but the options there are... well, if that market was at had Sawall's location in Oakwood, there would be an uproar. Everything is from far away and contains pesticides. The owners are working to get better options and from what I hear had begun a partnership with People's Food Co-op, but its incredibly hard for them.
Oh ok, I see what Dr. McKinney and Toni are saying. What they are saying is true. In addition to that, let's think about the shoppers and the people who live there. Although urban gentrification has a lot of benefits, it will increase city housing costs and also commodity prices. I don't know what is the population there or who lives there, but I can say this for sure that if there are individuals from the lower class living there, they WILL SUFFER. For this reason, you're trying to force them to change their living standards too drastically. Also, we have to think about the jobs that people from lower class have. If they can't keep up with the costs there, then they'll have to move somewhere else. Therefore, we have to be careful when we think about urban gentrification.
ReplyDelete* By the way Toni, the people from the Northside will not benefit from this idea. However, you're right that they do need access to groceries, and I've seen them around looking for food. Still, it's better to leave them alone in regards to this kind of idea.
Like I said before, we have to see both sides of the story.
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting solution to the lack of food suppliers in urban centers, but as many of you have pointed out, the high cost groceries in these new developments prevent them from being effective. Low income families are still in need of affordable accessible groceries.
ReplyDeleteLast summer I participated in an externship in Baltimore reviewing grant applications. One of the programs I researched was called The Virtual Supermarket. It's a fairly new program and certainly isn't perfect but it is another interesting attempt to eliminate food deserts.
This link gives more details on the program and where they hope to take it in the future. http://www.baltimorehealth.org/virtualsupermarket.html
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Detroit on this topic yet. I found this article from the Wall St Journal that's a little outdated (from 2009) but still relevant, I think:
ReplyDeletehttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB124510185111216455.html#articleTabs_slideshow%3D%26articleTabs%3Darticle
One fact that I thought was particularly interesting in the case of Detroit is that, according to the article, more half of the people who live in Detroit have to travel twice as far to get to an actual grocery store than to a fast-food chain or a convenience store.
I think it will be interesting to see how these initial locations do. This is more common in countries such as Norway, where grocery shopping is done more on a day-to-day basis.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this could start a change in mentality for Americans. Could the idea that you visit a grocery store once a day oppose to once a week make consumers make more economically friendly choices? Maybe buy what they need oppose to what they think they will need.
I view the lack of access to fresh foods as a major problem in low-income metro areas. Working at Woodward, I often see kids whose only lunch is a bag of cheetos or possibly Mcdonalds. While the cost of maintaining stores in urban areas may raise prices, I think these developments will greatly benefit urban communities. It may not change everyday meal habits and I doubt daily shopping trips for fresh food will become a norm, it gives people that option for the occasions where they may want fresh food, such as family dinners or possibly simply buying fresh(ish) bread. I struggle to picture most residents of Kalamazoo's poorer neighborhoods embracing fresh daily salads anytime soon, but I look forward to the day when I see all my first graders eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch instead of mcchickens or bigmacs.
ReplyDeleteA particular grocery store in the article mentioned they had a built-in coffee shop that opened an hour earlier than the store. They mentioned, they are seen as not only a grocery store, but as also a gather place for members of the community. Though the writer of the article did mention that this is a way to promote sustainability by have customers walk to store, I think these types of “add-ons” to urban groceries store are completely unnecessary and only increase the cost of the products at these grocery stores. In an urban neighborhood, where there is most likely a coffee shop of some sort on every block, I do not think people need another gathering joint when trying to buy food. When the cost of property in an urban area is already higher than outskirt properties, the products sold at the grocery store are going to be more expensive in order to subsidize the higher property value. The goal of an urban grocery store should be to provide products that are as affordable as possible by keeping the store small and as basic as possible. If I lived in a city where there were shops, restaurants, and various forms of entertainment fairly close to me, the ONLY thing I would want from my neighborhood grocery store is affordable food.
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