My parents live in northeast Houston, north of Kashmere Gardens. I live in Kashmere Gardens. My parents live on the fifth ward kashmere gardens corridor of northeast Houston. A ghetto wasteland really but not all that bad. One thing about ghettos is they are retail wastelands. The Kroger nearest them (about 4 miles) closed recently. Im gonna be honest, my parents had the financial capability to move a lot of places, they made their decision. Their neighborhood was decent in 1980 when we moved there but quickly declined. There was a K Mart that closed a few years after we moved there. There are no major retailers except Wal-Mart nearby. Wal-Mart moved in jus six years ago. Im starting this thread because i see a lot of criticism about businesses not moving in depressed areas. If Kroger feels it can't be profitable in the ghetto does it have an obligation to build there. Secondly, I can reach a Kroger in an hr on Metro. If my parents had to ride Metro it would be difficult especially carrying groceries. Should Kroger way all these issues when deciding where to build. Is it discrimination avoiding depressed areas when they tend to be mostly black.
I don't think we can expect for-profit businesses to do something economically irrational. But I don't think that there's nothing to be done. There's people up in northeast Houston that need groceries and their money is green. I think there's potential for the city to collaborate with a grocer to create the conditions they need to have a successful business there. Maybe it's been tried, I don't know. I remember when I lived in Third Ward, we had the HEB on Scott St, which I was told was one of the most profitable stores they had in Houston. They just had some headaches with crime in the parking lot, panhandlers, etc. My big problem with them is that they got the second-rate produce and their beef was cut thin for the hispanic market, so I went to the store near my work, the HEB on Buffalo Speedway. A lot of my neighbors, in fact, hauled out to other parts of the city to shop at Whole Foods or whatever. Lots of grousing for a better store in the neighborhood. Its not my industry, but I always felt like my neighborhood's willingness to pay was underappreciated.
H-E-B actually has a Spainish themed store near us, Mi Tienda. I like H-E-B also but its easier to get to the Wal-Mart My parents love Krogers
Interesting, we just had a Kroger close in my area that led to a similar discussion. At the end of the day, Kroger needs to look out for Kroger.
Low-income + low-education + high-crime = very little incentive for businesses to operate in the area.
I would probably push for a little more transparency in the location scouting process for grocers that have multiple locations in different areas of the city, I don't know if you do that through the county when it's time for zoning / construction permits or whatever. The rationale being that not necessarily having a reasonably priced, fully-stocked grocer in a densely populated area where there are multiple-low earners with crappy shift hours, no transport and multiple dependents at home could be an issue: but that's a pretty convoluted set of circumstances and it's not like there's some urban famine going on.
Not really. The folks in food deserts have some money and they buy groceries just like everybody else. You don't need a college education to shop at a grocery store. I suppose the problem is that they don't have the same appetite for paying a little extra for premium brand stuff or impulse purchases, but Walmart beats all competitors in the segment of the market that delivers staple goods at a competitive price. Just like in the small town, people would like to have a more intimate, classier shopping experience, and would like access to the occasional luxury good, but Walmart's efficiency just sucks out all the oxygen a grocer like that would need to survive. Still, I don't think it's impossible for a Kroger or an HEB to operate in a market like that, but they'd have to be clever how they position themselves, and again if the community is asking for it they should get their city to help make some arrangement to make it easier to happen.
I lived in Sunny Side for a few years in high school after my father decided to leave. To say I was a target was an understatement. One of the things that stood out was the lack of stores to get groceries or really anything. Most people bought groceries from small little independent stores that were basically service stations and extremely over priced. I remember thinking that it was crazy that there were no grocery stores. When I was in college I became friends with the son of a man that was a higher up at a grocery chain and asked why didn't open a store even on the outskirts of town. I was told that grocery stores have tried to open in areas like Sunny Side and they have almost always failed. He told me they couldn't get the employees, theft was a major issue and that the business wasn't sufficient. How much of it is racism? IDK but I will point out that his dad was black and didn't seem to think there was any inherent bias. I am more dubious.
hmm. ..try to replicate what Leonard Casley had done, he declared his farm in Australia as an independent State, he gave him self the title of Prince , issued his coins/stamps , he even declared war to preserve his sovereign state,....why can't you open your own Krogers???
This is a pretty universal problem, not just a local thing. It's called a food desert: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert if you figure out a solution, let the rest of the world know how you fixed it. You'll probably win a nobel Prize. Fiesta has stores in some of these places, but my experience is that those stores look wilted and anemic, next to stores in nicer neighborhoods. La Michoacana, too.
Unfortunately my memories of the K Mart include shoplifters Grocery stores have veey thin profit margins as is
Hence, the rise of bodegas and corner shops in these areas. It is a nationwide trend in any capitalist country. Without government subsidies and ghetto education, nothing can change. From the huge retail grocery stores in Florida that rely on illegals picking their fruits and vegetables to constant The cycle of obesity, too many kids , no incentive to eat healthy, violence and theft all add up to instability well run corporations want nothing to do with.
Three key reasons why grocery stores are not eager to move into depressed/low income parts of town: -Unable to find reliable employees -Shop lifting -Poor people tend not to buy the most profitable items. Ramen noodle is not very profitable. Big chains like this only see one color: Green. And they are extremely prejudice about it.
They've had the same issue for a long time in urban areas in European countries with homogeneous populations. It is not actively racist. The racial issue is more like why are poor people disproportionately of darker skin tones, which isn't something you can blame on the supermarkets, unless you want to blow me away with some novel logical and rhetorical gymnastics.
That description applies not just to who would shop there but also to who would work there. I cannot really blame a business for not wanting to higher low-skill, low-educated workers in a high-crime area for the purpose of catering to low-skill, low-educated people in a high-crime area. Let's not blame Wal-mart either. There is a Wal-mart in Clear Lake, but there are also Kroger and HEB stores.
These are not traits any grocery store would avoid, just a moderator's note cards from a eugenics symposium.
What is about reality in a capitalist state that scares you? https://mashable.com/2015/12/08/supermarkets-food-deserts/#gD.IoW64kSqB
