Idea of city-owned grocery store is absurd

Scrap this notion before it gets even more embarrassing

The Ford Motor Co.’s Edsel model is considered the biggest failures in modern history as the car had only a three-year run and was put out of the company’s misery in 1960. Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration apparently is looking to make the Edsel the second biggest failure in history, right beyond Team Johnson’s idea of a city-owned grocery store.

All of the news accounts report the administration is looking to run a grocery store on the South Side or West Side. No one is reporting a chain, but rather a single store. Can you identify another city that operates a grocery store? The likelihood is you can’t because every mayor, city manager, township supervisor and city council knows that government doesn’t do what private sector operators do. Besides, it’s not as Chicago has a reputation for flawlessly carrying out its consititutional obligations. Adding another log to the municipal fire screams absurdity.

If somehow this debacle of an idea took hold and became a reality; it would cause an uproar in communities that are already considered food deserts. For a grocery store to have maximum impact it needs to be in a community with ample possible shoppers. One store will not minimize the city-wide paucity of grocery stores in Black neighborhoods. When we look at the West Side and South Side, the only community to fit that bill is Austin as it has approximately 97,000 residents - more than any other Chicago neighborhood.

However, at the same time, the education level of most residents is a high school diploma or less-that is not the demographic with a large amount of disposable income. When Whole Foods left the Englewood community earlier this year; residents clamored they wanted a replacement grocery store of equal “prestige.” There was no point in a high-end grocerer to consider moving into that space considering the incomes of the residents in and around Englewood. Grocers often lament the slim profit margin upon which they operate. Locating where the discretionary income is low shrinks that profit margin even more. Yes, to a great extent, poor people are penalized for being poor

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One has to wonder that in putting forth the idea for the Johnson-inspired grocery store, the braintrust failed to take into account a basic element of shopping - transportation. There is an abundance of research that tells us that 90 percent of grocery shoppers won’t travel more than 20 minutes; and for every day items won’t go more than 10 minutes from home. The Chicago Transit Authority is not the most relieable mode of city transportation; so it is feasible someone shopping at the Johnson Administration Grocery store could have someone wating for a bus or el with a bag or bags of groceries with items that are melting by the minute. Even by car, getting to some points from the West Side to the South Side takes more than 20 minutes.

The Johnson Grocery Store would mean paying taxes on taxes

There was no mention of scrip in the pitch for the proposed grocery store, so that would mean shoppers who are already paying some sort of tax, would be taxed again-just as though they were buying from a traditional grocery store. At least when they pay at a regular grocery store those tax dollars are going into the city coffers. The Johnson Grocery store would need to take money (tax dollars) out of the city budget to establish the store; then hope to recoup as much as has been withdrawn through what shoppers pay. That notion is risky at best.

The Johnson Grcery Store idea is one for the wood chipper. The mayor would serve himself and Chicagoans better by convening members of the state grocers association, other retail associations, whoever represents the gas station/convenience store cohort; and hammer a realistic stratetgy to increase the number of grocery stores in the designated areas.

Local residents proved through their unrealistic expectations and so-called demands in Englewood that they don’t need a seat at the table, as they miss the complexities of operating such businesses.

The burgeoning budget deficit, the migrant crisis, along with replacing department heads and commissioners should be the mayor’s priorities. Focusing on those issues are far more likely to get Chicago back on track. Establishing a single grocery store at some yet-to-be-determined location will foster ill-will and provide no real solution to the food scarcity issue.