I’d turn down Trader Joe’s if my neighborhood lacked a good grocery with affordable produce, meat, and staples. I need those things before I need the oreo mint brittle and good cheap wine.
It’s an early Chris Rock joke.
Please read the thread (including the letter from the protesting organization and a couple of follow-up news articles).
The never protested Trader Joe’s coming to the neighborhood. That was the way the news media reported it. They protested what they perceived to be a multi-million dollar government hand-out to a national corporation that did not provide for accommodations and improvements that would directly assist the community.
They may be utterly wrong in their objections and logic, but they were not objecting to Trader Joe’s.
But it would directly assist the community by providing healthy foods at affordable prices…addressing a frequent complaint among low-income communities…
Disagreements don’t need to involve questioning my reading comprehension.
Since your concerns have been addressed more than once in this thread, it does make one wonder if you want answers, or just want to press a point.
See post #120 item 7. That is, of course, Sleestak’s interpretation of the letter but other posters have mentioned there are other grocery stores close by.
And just to throw it out there, there is some new research that seems to indicate that gentrification doesn’t always have to hurt residents (link).
Getting at the food desert issue a bit more, there’s also recent research showing that slapping up a shiny new grocery store in a food desert area doesn’t necessarily result in healthier eating habits or even shift shopping habits all that much.
Fair enough, you can lead a horse to water…
It’s been pointed out already that there’s a Safeway a half mile away, but in any case, for me… Trader Joe’s is a good grocery with affordable produce and staples (I don’t eat a lot of meat so I don’t know the prices as well, but the frozen chicken packs are very competitively priced as well). Our local grocery chains, Hy-Vee and Dahl’s, are notoriously expensive, especially for produce. I tend to shop between Aldi and Trader Joe’s for most foodstuffs, for a good balance of quality/healthiness and price. When TJs came to town, I started saving money.
Sure, if you want 25 cent boxed mac and cheese ‘product’, maybe TJs isn’t for you, but for healthy food it really is among the cheaper options – at least in my area.
In my experience, TJs is great when you are single or have a 2 person household. The portions are relatively small, cutting down on food waste, and that can be pretty economical. A lot of their food is on the mostly-healthy-pre-prepared side, which is awesome for someone who is on the go a lot and needs quick and a few quick and easy meals to fill in the spaces in the week.
But it’s not a good bet for a family who cooks economically. Poor families tend to do a lot of stuff along the lines of “put a big cheap roast in the slow cooker and use it over a few days” or “make a big vat of soup” and TJs sucks for that. I love TJs, and it used to be my primary grocery store, but that was when I was in college. With lots of family members and especially with potentially picky kids, it’s not such a good fit.