New Haven Independent

posted by: MJ on March 23, 2010  11:39am

Let these pictures be a reminder of the consequences resulting from creating a partnership with an entity that has no basis in the community (i.e. Supervalu). For all the good that the GDDC does and for what it’s stated goals are, I find it ironic for them to have partnered with an “outsider” such as Supervalu when this whole thing started. As a result of that partnership, this is what we are left with: an empty store. And look who’s laughing all the way to the bank. Supervalu has lost nothing in this deal. I wouldn’t be surprised if their execs were making fun of our poor little situation in New Haven. When will we learn? We can’t trust businessmen with our community well-being! They don’t care about us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTvyFmo6Sfs

posted by: Good riddance on March 23, 2010  12:30pm

Good riddance. So another crappy “supermarket” leaves town? Packaged food laced with preservatives isn’t what we should be eating.

A short walk down the street is Edge of the Woods, which has a good produce section, cafe with freshly-prepared goods including juices, and natural food galore!

It’s not expensive either- instead of filling the cart with flavors, you instead fill the cart with local produce, ingredients for a dinner dish, and cereals. Convenience at the expense of our health isn’t a business model that survives long.

Wake up and smell the fresh fruits, veggies, and vegetables people! There are plenty of stores in our area, and where the selection is lacking, there’s the CitySeed Farmers’ Markets!

I haven’t had a steady paycheck since September; I’m a full-time employee (on commission) in New Haven and even I can afford to shop at Edge of the Woods and the farmers’ markets (who accept EBT).

Good riddance, Shaws! Your products were poisoning our bodies and minds. Can your kids differentiate between scallions and onions? No? Can you cook a simple meal with 6 vegetables? No? It’s time to learn! We’re the fattest nation on the planet!

posted by: Far From 1998 on March 23, 2010  12:32pm

These photos are very sad.  I watched the dealerships and comcast come down, the plaza go up, and was there for the opening ceremonies and the doors opening, all so clean and full.  How proud the Shaw’s execs were.  Yet soon, this was the location where Shaw’s career employees did not want to work.  I stopped shopping there long ago, too much nonsense, distracted staff and rude customers.  Good luck Linda and Sheila.  I too am hoping for a big name replacement, not Sav A Lot.I believe MJ is incorrect, Supervalu acquired Shaw’s (of Boston) just a few years ago.  Read the NY Times article… plenty of “businessmen” were there making this store happen.  The local community would not, to this day, been able to raise locally the capital required.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/13/nyregion/the-view-from-new-haven-suburbia-in-the-city-supermarket-style.html?pagewanted=1

posted by: JSJ on March 23, 2010  12:45pm

Last month, the federal administration announced a $400 million financing initiative for grocery stores in under-served neighborhoods.  Have our neighborhood specialists looked into this?  It seems as though we’d qualify according to the information in the press release:

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/02/20100219a.html

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on March 23, 2010  12:59pm

MJ,
Exactly.

Shaw’s doesn’t care about Whalley. Stop & Shop doesn’t care about Whalley. Shop Rite doesn’t care about Whalley. No one cares except the residents. And the residents are the one’s that will have to organize to provide the goods and services for other residents.
When there’s trash on the sidewalk, I pick it up and put it in the garbage. I don’t meet with 20 other people and try to hire a gigantic national chain store company based in Nebraska to pick up litter. Trying to bring in another “Shaw’s” is the equivalent of walking past litter and saying “Man, somebody should really pick that up”. Yes, someone should pick that up, and guess what? That person is you. Or in the case of goods and services for several neighborhoods, the ‘person’ is individuals or groups of individuals who show an interest in operating a small business.
Being a ‘low-income’ area is not an excuse; in fact, its completely false and misleading. There is a lot of money, resources, and social capital just waiting to be tapped all along Whalley. We are not trying to create a thriving neighborhood center from scratch; the infrastructure is already largely present, we just have to use it more efficiently and purposefully than we currently do.
Immigrants have come to this country for hundreds of years with less than nothing and yet intricate networks of locally owned stores have never ceased to thrive. All of central New Haven’s history is a testament to the immense capability of communities to create enormous amenities even when the individuals are extremely poor. Present day Grand Avenue is another great example of this.
Its true that the same policies, urban design principles, and systems of commerce that allowed for dense networks of local business do not exist today and it has become extremely difficult for individuals with little investment capabilities to start businesses. However, this is where it becomes important to act as a community made up, not so much of individuals, but as groups with pooled resources, knowledge and capital.

Establishing another Grand Avenue-like neighborhood center along Whalley takes a very long time, and the community is in need of a large grocery ‘service’ (not ‘store’) now because this is a large area made up of several neighborhoods. Personally, I think it is much more logical to try to attract smaller chain groceries in the short term instead of one large super store. Perhaps CTown can reopen in Dixwell now that Shaw’s won’t provide overwhelming competition. Or maybe it can open in the old Staples, or a small chain can open in the Walgreen’s Plaza or maybe 3 different chains can open in all 3 locations. There actually used to be-a couple decades ago-a grocery in what was the old Walgreens/Dollar Store building who’s owner lived in the neighborhood. If a few chain groceries can be established in the short term, with the idea that smaller, locally owned groceries, book stores, banks, florists, delis, butchers, etc will populate the intermediate space between them, then we will have arrived at a Whalley Avenue that is worth spending time and money in and is worth showing off as a great benefit to our neighborhood instead of being the dangerous, eyesore that it currently is, for the most part.

posted by: roger huzendubel on March 23, 2010  1:01pm

I donty think Good riddance realizes that not eevryone can afford to shop at edge of the woods. Many of the people that shop there are low income. maybe some of the food is unhealthy, but eating that food is a choice you make. there is no other grocery store of that capacity anywhere near whalley ave. ...

posted by: Structural problems... on March 23, 2010  1:11pm

From the NYT Article:

Bernard Rogan, a spokesman for Shaw’s, said the support from both grass roots groups and from institutions like Yale and the Hospital of St. Raphael made this a viable project. He said sales started off slower than average, but the company attributed that to the shopping habits of urbanites, who tend to buy less on each visit but to visit more often than suburban customers. The store does not reveal sales figures, but, said Mr. Rogan, the numbers at Dwight Place are adding up. ‘‘We are delighted with sales,’’ he said.

I think what MJ was trying to say, and what the above quote illustrates, is that corporations are designed in such a way that they can only be concerned with one thing: profits. We can’t blame them, it is in their nature. The inherent structure of corporate business demands this short-sightedness. I think what the community envisioned back in 1998 was something they could have a stake in, like the plaza itself. In 2010, they are still waiting for that, and a corporate structure simply will not provide such an asset.

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on March 23, 2010  1:22pm

roger huzendubel,

Minore’s?

posted by: Pedro on March 23, 2010  2:29pm

I also think that an

by the way, I think Jonathan’s comments are 1000% right on. Ideally there would be a consortium of local businesspeople or single eentrepreneur who could help get this moving…someone with an active interest in the community.

Stop and Shop already has a New Haven location in Amity,  as well as 2 2 in Hamden and one East Haven. It didn’t make sense for them to add yet another location downtown.  They are obviously corporate owned.

Shop Rite (the 2nd buyer) is not corporate owned. They are actually a retailer’s cooperative and the franchises are individually owned and operated. In this case, it’s highly likely that the person who owns the Shop Rites in this area (West Haven) picked the Hamden and Stratford locations and declined on the New Haven one for his/her own reasons.

With any luck someone (or some group) with retail management experience can pony up some capital and get a national coop like A&P back into this area. That gives them the distribution network to give lower prices, but since ownership will be local, a much stronger incentive to make it succeed.

posted by: wes on March 23, 2010  2:38pm

What about a grocery cooperative? I think it’s time for the community (you and me) to step up and advocate for something which should be a right: the right to accessible and healthful food.

This is an opportunity, not for another corporation to come in and take profits out of the community, but for a non-profit entity made of community members that provides a stable, low-cost source of healthy foods.

Roosevelt proposed a second bill of rights, but died before the proposal could be advanced. Two of the rights that Roosevelt recognized were:

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living.

These rights, among others, were meant to remedy the fact that the “political rights” guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights had “proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.”

Let us all pursue happiness and the right to a decent meal purchased with an honest wage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bill_of_Rights

posted by: wes on March 23, 2010  2:54pm

and a follow-up:
A food co-op operates much like a normal grocery store, except that it’s owned by its customers, or members, in order to provide them with the best quality service at the best possible price.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2092459_start-food-coop.html

posted by: Threefifths on March 23, 2010  3:38pm

posted by: JSJ on March 23, 2010 12:45pm

Last month, the federal administration announced a $400 million financing initiative for grocery stores in under-served neighborhoods.  Have our neighborhood specialists looked into this?  It seems as though we’d qualify according to the information in the press release:

This is waht you are talking about.They did it in harlem.

March 4, 2010, 1:58 pm
New Supermarket in Neighborhood That Needs One
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

The Best Yet market recently opened on Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s Sisyphean efforts to get New Yorkers to replace their passion for French fries with an appreciation of salads is making progress: Harlem is getting a supermarket specializing in lower-priced fruits and vegetables.

On Friday morning, city officials are expected to cut the ribbon on Best Yet Market, a city outpost of the family-run Long Island supermarket chain, at 2187 Frederick Douglass Boulevard between West 118th and 119th Streets. The event is ceremonial: the store actually opened a month ago.

The owners of Best Yet had been searching for space in Manhattan, because they felt there would be demand there, according to Jonathan Sender, the supermarket chain’s advertising and marketing director. The owners chose a location in the base of the condo project called SoHa 118 because the owners noticed that “they’re building condos all around there,” Mr. Sender said.

Best Yet’s owners are also benefiting from government incentives to move into Harlem. They received a $1 million loan from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone to help open the market. Officials of the empowerment zone also helped with hiring in the neighborhood. Roughly one-third of the 140 workers come from Upper Manhattan.

“It’s huge,” Hope Knight, chief operating officer of the empowerment zone, said about the new market. “We’ve gotten feedback from the community that they’re very excited that this market is here.”

The market joins an increasing number of supermarket options in Harlem, including a Fairway, a Pathmark and a Costco.

Best Yet’s owners are also benefiting from government incentives to move into Harlem. They received a $1 million loan from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone to help open the market. Officials of the empowerment zone also helped with hiring in the neighborhood. Roughly one-third of the 140 workers come from Upper Manhattan.

“It’s huge,” Hope Knight, chief operating officer of the empowerment zone, said about the new market. “We’ve gotten feedback from the community that they’re very excited that this market is here.”

They got the money from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone.We have a Empowerment Zone here in New haven.Did Any of the comunity leaders ask them? Feel free to read the full artcule.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/new-supermarket-in-a-neighborhood-that-needs-one/

I am going to say it again.Workers sit down and put you money togther and buy the store!!!

posted by: Eva Geertz on March 23, 2010  4:28pm

Have spent much of today remembering Pegnataro’s, and I can’t be the only one…

posted by: glad to be gone on March 23, 2010  4:29pm

Glad I’m gone now.  Shaw’s was a miserable excuse for a grocery store.  It was higher priced than the area StopnShop’s, service was a misery,it was dirty, etc., and why should the Supervalue company care about Whalley when most of Whalley’s own residents continually litter and damage their own neighborhood.  I hated living near Whalley mostly because the people were so mean and careless, and it carried over into the business in the area, and the way people drove, too.  A major attitude adjustment is needed for much of that part of New Haven.  Bye forever.

posted by: Smokestack El Ropo on March 23, 2010  5:47pm

Guess that ‘hopey-changey’ thing didnt work out at Shaws

posted by: visitor on March 23, 2010  8:17pm

Hi—this is slightly off topic, but does anyone know if there is a vegetable/fruit coop in New Haven for locally grown produce? You know, where you pay X amount each month and in the summer/fall you get a X pounds of vegetables? Hartford has one, so I would think there has to be one in New Haven—anyone know?

posted by: nfjanette on March 23, 2010  9:26pm

We can’t trust businessmen with our community well-being! They don’t care about us!

Correct - it is not the function of a business to “care” about a community.  The business sells services or goods, the members of the community decide whether and how they “care” and express that value.  No one will come and open a replacement business because they “care”.  Either there is a viable business opportunity or not.  Given the large size of the current store with the accompanying overhead costs, I wonder if dividing the space somehow might be required to attract a replacement store.

posted by: Morris Cove Mom on March 23, 2010  9:58pm

Good riddance:  Most of us cannot afford Edge of the Woods, so we shop at Shaw’s or in my case, ALDI on Route 80, the discount mini-supermarket.

I wonder if ALDI knows this space is available, and would be interested in it?

posted by: Stephen H on March 23, 2010  11:44pm

Despite what a few here are saying Shaw’s will be missed by many in the community.  A gaping hole has been created that will likely remain unfilled for a long time.

Not everyone wants to, or can afford to shop at an organic food store or trek out to a farmers market for their groceries.

Shaw’s was losing money and that is why they are pulling out of our state. Wakefern and Ahold are not interested in filling the void thanks to the tax structure, crime, and hostile business climate that exists in New Haven.

What is truly sad is the powers that be put a stop to another Supervalu chain known as Sav-A-Lot that would have filled the now empty and shuttered Staples store down the road from Shaw’s.

Sav-A-Lot is a limited assortment grocery store with rock bottom prices tailored to those on a budget. 

It wouldn’t be a Shaw’s but, it would have at least given those in the area the opportunity to continue shopping in their own neighborhood for most of their grocery needs.

It would be nice for another grocery chain to step in or for Shaw’s to have a change of heart but, remember a Grocery store is a business, not a charity. 

If I owned a store and was losing money, I would leave too.  If taxes were high and profits uncertain at a specific location I would look somewhere else.

Taxes and costs are one of the reasons I had to make the tough decision to leave New Haven a few years ago.

The best way to get another full service grocery store is to court the appropriate chain with some incentives. If another limited assortment store wants into the neighborhood, it would be best to help them win approval as something is better than nothing!

posted by: William Kurtz on March 24, 2010  8:23am

Visitor: 

Check into the City Seed Farmer’s market.  I can’t remember the details, but I remember hearing, somewhere, a few weeks ago about an opportunity similar to what you’re describing.  It might have been offered by a specific farmer.  I’m sorry not to be of more help, but that should be a start.

http://www.cityseed.org/

It might have been this farm offering it:

http://www.waldingfieldfarm.com/home.html

posted by: Uncle Egg on March 24, 2010  8:55am

My vote goes for an affordable, all-purpose grocery store for the neighborhood—not some overpriced health food store that will save East Rockers from driving all the way to Westville for their granola fix.

posted by: BeaverHill Tom on March 24, 2010  9:56am

I am torn about Shaw’s.  On the one hand it was convenient and served an under-served community.  On the other hand it was the only place in the world where I could have a $150 transaction and not have any eye contact or words with the cashier.  I grew up in Chicago, and have lived for years at each downstate Illinois, California, and Tennessee.  The Dwight New Haven attitude expressed at Shaw’s was one of a kind, and really annoying.

I really felt I was putting them out by shopping there.  Not a good vibe and I blame the management.  In the end, with regards to the staff, you get what you wish for.  Or at least what your attitude appears to attract.  Stop and Shop for my family from now on.

posted by: Auntie on March 24, 2010  10:08am

Uncle Egg,

I don’t even live in East Rock or Westville, but that’s offensive. Why is it an elitist idea to want fresh, locally grown food? It seems like a purely logical choice, if nothing else.

And, why is it so crazy to imagine that healthy food can actually be affordable? Guess what? It is! I make less than 20k/year and have no problem avoiding processed, food-like products in exchange for fresh stuff. You can do it too, Egg.

posted by: Uncle Egg on March 24, 2010  10:44am

Auntie:

It’s elitist because you’re imposing your values and needs on a neighborhood that largely doesn’t share them. What the Dwight community needs is a full-service supermarket with reasonable prices so they don’t have to pay double at convenience stores. It needs a meat counter and it needs an ethnic foods section. It needs inexpensive diapers and baby formula.

I like locally produced and healthy foods, too. To the extent that a full-service supermarket can provide them, I support that. But I just don’t see the poorer neighborhoods of New Haven screaming out for these things. They need a supermarket. Period.

posted by: Auntie on March 24, 2010  11:35am

“It’s elitist because you’re imposing your values and needs on a neighborhood that largely doesn’t share them.”

Unky Egg,

So you’re saying the neighborhood does not share my values of health and sustainability? I doubt that. Maybe the neighborhood just isn’t being informed about the consequences of the opposite model. Is it elitist to inform them, or to advocate for positive change on behalf of the disenfranchised? I don’t think so.

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on March 24, 2010  12:41pm

This post is addressed to the people who think local networks of commerce are too expensive.

Currently our tax dollars, in part, go towards massive subsidies to large farms in various parts of the country. These subsidies allow farmers to operate enormous farms, which reduces the cost of produce for the masses. These farms deploy their produce on the interstate highway system by trucking across country to every little town’s supermarket. We pay the full cost for the construction, repair, expansion and demolition of highways because they generate no money. The actual cost of large scale farming is not the price we pay at the super market alone, it is the real cost of all the systems that make it possible.
We can advocate for farm subsidies to go to smaller and more localized farms. We can advocate that we no longer spend money on the highway system. The local produce would be less expensive than it currently is and the savings we would gain from no longer supporting an interstate highway system would greatly outweigh the difference in price of supermarket produce.
However, we also use the highway system for commuting and vacationing. This can be remedied by designing self-sustaining communities where home, work, shopping, recreation and services are all within walking and biking distance and along transit routes. Some of the highway money can also go to replacing existing highways with boulevards in cities and with parkways in rural areas as well as investing in rail. Some of the suburban hinterland should be salvaged for material and returned to localized farm land, which would help reduce the cost of transportation because the farm would be closer to its supply target.
This process will take decades.
Until then, Whalley should try to attract 2 or 3 small chain groceries like CTown or Save-A-Lot that are deployed at logical intervals along Whalley (Walgreen’s Plaza, Staples building, Diwxwell plaza, etc). This would allow for the Shaw’s blocks to be densified and re-purposed.
In the short term, several chain groceries makes sense. In the longer term, one giant supermarket makes no sense. Also in the long term, local networks of agriculture and manufacturing that deploy produce and goods via a dense network of local establishments makes a whole lot of sense; while prices of these goods may be slightly higher than we currently pay for comparable goods, the overall cost including transportation, farm subsidies, long term health issues, etc is far less with local networks than with national ones.
The idea that local is more expensive simply is not true and people need to stop saying it is. While Edge of the Woods ketchup might have a more expensive price tag than Shaw’s brand, the actual COST of the Shaw’s brand is arguably far greater than the cost of Edge of the Wood’s. If the things I’ve talked about above are implemented, then the undeniably the cost of local goods will be less and perhaps even the price as well.

posted by: Uncle Egg on March 24, 2010  12:51pm

Auntie:

I see it as a matter of fulfilling basic needs first. For many people living in New Haven’s poorer neighborhoods, getting groceries means spending $30 or $40 for a round-trip cab ride to a suburban grocery store—either that or paying exorbitant prices to buy junk food at the nearby convenience store.

While chain supermarkets don’t always offer locally grown or organic foods, they do offer produce and staple items that are a cut above what’s available at the local Exxon Mart. And they offer a far wider variety of goods than specialty stores like Whole Foods.

Those of us who have cars and larger budgets can afford the luxury of choosing to go to Whole Foods instead of Stop & Shop or C-Town.

Speaking only for myself, if I had access to only one alternative, I’d chose a Stop & Shop over Whole Foods in a heartbeat.

posted by: William Kurtz on March 24, 2010  2:10pm

It looks like JH wins on idealism; Uncle Egg on pragmatics.  Yes, a neighborhood needs affordable options for groceries and Whole Foods and Edge of the Woods might not be there just yet.  But Mr. Hopkins is exactly correct: the supposedly free-market low prices imposed on smaller local retailers by big chains like Walmart and Shaw’s are heavily subsidized by, and dependent on, that crazy socialist spending on highways, roads, military efforts in oil-producing states, tax-exemption on the land used for parking lots, etc. etc. etc.  It’s insane that a tomato grown in South America should be cheaper than one grown in Connecticut, but there it is. 

A food co-op would be a great idea.

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on March 24, 2010  2:18pm

Uncle Egg,
1913:
http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs046.snc3/13354_1173429611003_1085910074_30446191_2799854_n.jpg
Today:
http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs378.snc3/24169_1267275877101_1085910074_30635257_4003686_n.jpg

It is good to stand up and fight for underpriviledged groups, but you are on the wrong side of the solution. Access to cheap food in a giant warehouse owned by a distance corporation that funnels money out of the community and is not easily accessible to children, the elderly or people who live further than a quart mile away is not good for Whalley Avenue. A dense network of local groceries owned by residents that are within walking distance of everyone’s house is good for Whalley Avenue. Gas station convenience stores are not what I or anyone else is talking about. The things I’m talking about do not exist any longer due to misguided policies of mid 20th century planning practices. We need to bring those extinct networks back in a way that works for our modern standards. Since policy no longer invests in these types of networks, the community has to step in to pool resources in order to act as the starter ignition, the safety net, and the beneficiary of the success.

posted by: Auntie on March 24, 2010  3:43pm

How did this ever become a choice between Stop & Shop and Whole Foods?

If anything, it is a choice between outsider control of the food supply vs. community control of the food supply, and at a time in history when it matters most!

Let’s not limit our options here, or set the parameters for debate. Anything that creates positive change is a option worth exploring, in my opinion.

posted by: auto transporter on March 24, 2010  3:49pm

Hopefully another grocery store can be found to fill the gap this one has left behind. What a terrible time to lose your job though.

posted by: Gretchen Pritchard on March 25, 2010  4:27am

I wonder if Ferraro’s (they are local, right?) would be interested in opening a branch.

It would be cool if Edge of the Woods could overcome its resistance to meat and open a more general market, with high quality local meat and a wider range of mainstream food items.

I have also been impressed by C-Town.

And what is the story with Minore’s?  I’ve never had the nerve to go inside; it looks so completely derelict.

posted by: Steve Bradley on March 25, 2010  9:57am

You know what gets me? That the residents of the neigborhood are still trying to shop there!
They will never get it!

posted by: Stephen H on March 25, 2010  10:44am

C-Town supermarkets is a pool of independent operators sorta like IGA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-Town_Supermarkets

Minore’s is actually a meat market with some limited grocery items. 

The store is small but, they supply many restaurants out of that building as their main business is whoseale meats.