31 January 2006

Transformation of an urban supermarket

I live in a town with a wealthy population of university residents and a large group of poor black people.

The supermarket in the town is "ghetto" compared to the store of the same chain in the more affluent town ten minutes away. By "ghetto," I mean that the supermarket in my town has crappy produce and few luxury and organic foods.

However, they have recently renovated the store. I was really surprised when I went grocery shopping today. There were new signs, added coffee grinders and gourmet coffee, specialty granola, better lighting on the produce, a new LCD TV, lots more ice cream and gourmet snack items, etc. There was greater emphasis on quality and selection as opposed to quantity of generic items from before.

I think the renovation was a good thing, but I can't help wondering what kind of impact it will have on my neighborhood. Will the "poor" people shop somewhere else?

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