Wah! The rich people get a nicer grocery store!

What kind of moron even thought this was worth putting in a newspaper?

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110726/DAVIDSON05/307200146/East-Nashville-ponders-why-Green-Hills-Kroger-got-upgrade

Ho-ly crap. I'm not nearly the conservative I used to be, but why is it government's business where Kroger puts its renovation budget? Maybe they are making the store in the rich part of town nicer because that's where the money is. Radical thinking, I know.

 

One potential, innovative solution: Mobile grocery Stores:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/16/fresh-moves-mobile-grocer_n_878414.html



Slide show: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/16/fresh-moves-mobile-grocer_n_878414.html#s293516

I think it's fucking brilliant.

Much lower costs. Much lower risk.

 

When customers have choices, businesses have to compete. I'm guess the Kroger in the poorer side of town doesn't have much competition. Of course, the one thing worse than having to shop in a rundown grocery store is having to travel 20 extra minutes to buy groceries.
But there is a history of grocery stores "re-dating" meat or moving unsold meat and/or produce to less desirable stores in the area.

 

So now "fresh food" is an inalienable right?

 

I don't think it's a right, by any means. But it does play into the obesity problem -- which leads to a shit load of other problems.

I really think the mobil supermarket thing could be a good idea.

While it shouldn't be necessary, a little financial education would go a long way. So would nutritional information. But, the fresh food has to be available for the nutritional info to be of any good.

 

Whatever, Michelle.

If you expect to pick up a healthy lifestyle at a grocery store, you're fucked. If you want to eat healthy, you can. Doesn't matter if you shop at Walmart, Kroger or Whole Fucking Foods. In any grocery store, there's a limited number of ACTUALLY healthy items. After that, the $.99 jumbo burritos aren't much different than the $5.99 cans of tuna fish.

You want to lose weight, chase that fucking bus around every other day.

 

Ho-ly crap, what a leap to a(n errant) conclusion. So, a city councilman comments on a grocery store, which is a concern of his constituents, and suddenly the gubbermint's taking over? Did I miss the part where he said that? Hmm. Didn't think so.

And, while fresh food isn't an inalienable right, it is a PR problem for Kroger's... which is why it makes the paper.

 

I know. I have to be careful or I'm going to sound like a goody-goody liberal who wants to "invest" in people.

I'm just saying that there is a cycle of poverty. And, education of all kinds is what's needed to break it.

I used to do financial seminars. (They started out as sales seminars. Then my boss realized how little people knew, we just started doing a bunch of educational seminars. No sales pitch at all. We'd do 'em after Church in poor neighborhood.) So many people have no idea.

The supermarket I go to -- when i don't go to the Whole Foods down the street -- is a block from a firehouse you're familiar with.

It has a mix of Old Town yuppies and Cabrini Green residents using food stamps. The yuppies buy healthy food. The folks with food stamps buy crap. Sorry, but it's true.

(Also, at places like hospitals, or colleges, nearly every specialty coffee drink is ordered with skim milk. Nearly every single one.)

Yeah, people should eat well without any help.

And I'm very much against any kind of tax on salt, fat, fat food, soda, etc.

And, I don't even think Government should spend a lot of time or money on it. And, Michelle bugs the crap out of me. But, if she wants to make this her issue, I think that's OK. As an African-American, maybe she'll have an impact.

That's why this mobile thing excites me. I just hope Government doesn't screw it up and make it impossible for them to operate.

 

This isn't the ghetto by any means. It's a working class district that is gentrifying a bit. And there's a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market five blocks away. A half-mile in the other direction is Turnip Truck, which is sort of a localized Whole Foods. If the neighborhood Kroger isn't providing a decent level of service, it will fold on its own.

 

Dust on the suntan lotion (in Tennessee?)

That phrase just struck me as funny.

 

Lookee here Blance, theys grilling meats in the store. Weez livin now.