Olde Hornet
Well-Known Member
https://civileats.com/2018/01/22/ho...s-helps-grocery-chains-and-hurts-communities/
For thousands of residents in Bellingham, Washington, a quiet, coastal town between Seattle and the Canadian border, the Albertson’s supermarket was a lifeline. As the only full-service supermarket within the town’s Birchwood neighborhood, the store—the anchor business in the Park Manor shopping plaza—was accessible by foot for the many shoppers without cars and provided groceries at a lower price than the higher-end Haggen Food and Pharmacy more than a mile away.
Then, last year, the Albertson’s closed and a Safeway, a subsidiary of Albertson’s, opened three miles outside of town. Since then, the building that housed the Birchwood store has been sitting empty. Neighborhood residents must now make their way to a supermarket further afield—which, especially for low-income residents, may require taking a bus or spending more for their groceries at the higher-priced Haggen slightly closer to home.
A grocery store re-opening in Birchwood’s Park Manor strip mall likely would help some of the income- and transportation-challenged residents in a neighborhood that meets the federal government’s technical definition of a “food desert.” But Albertson’s, which still owns the 44,000-square-foot space, refuses to rent it to any tenant using more than 5,000 square feet to sell food.
For thousands of residents in Bellingham, Washington, a quiet, coastal town between Seattle and the Canadian border, the Albertson’s supermarket was a lifeline. As the only full-service supermarket within the town’s Birchwood neighborhood, the store—the anchor business in the Park Manor shopping plaza—was accessible by foot for the many shoppers without cars and provided groceries at a lower price than the higher-end Haggen Food and Pharmacy more than a mile away.
Then, last year, the Albertson’s closed and a Safeway, a subsidiary of Albertson’s, opened three miles outside of town. Since then, the building that housed the Birchwood store has been sitting empty. Neighborhood residents must now make their way to a supermarket further afield—which, especially for low-income residents, may require taking a bus or spending more for their groceries at the higher-priced Haggen slightly closer to home.
A grocery store re-opening in Birchwood’s Park Manor strip mall likely would help some of the income- and transportation-challenged residents in a neighborhood that meets the federal government’s technical definition of a “food desert.” But Albertson’s, which still owns the 44,000-square-foot space, refuses to rent it to any tenant using more than 5,000 square feet to sell food.
