Local Grocers Extinct: Can Co-ops bring them back from the brink?

Do you have a local grocer near you? I have been lucky enough to discover two within 5 miles of my house. This means I will never walk to a grocery store from where I live. This is the nature of American suburbs as we know them today, but it does not have to be. It was predicted that Walmart would destroy your local mom and pop grocer and they did. How could we replace these local institutions with Walmart?

The idea of big box stores revolve around two primary value propositions: Convenience of everything in one place, and, economies of scale making the individual product cheaper for the "consumer". You think that we, the people buying the items to use them are the consumer, and you would be wrong. The manufacturing/packaging/distributer sell the product to Wal-mart and that is where most of the savings form the economies of scale die. It is in Wal-mart's best interest to eke out the most return on investment for the shareholders. They spend big dollar amounts performing efficiency research, studying their user behaviours, and identifying patterns to know just how much they can raise prices before customers stop coming back.

I can hear the wanna-be capitalist class/temporarily embarassed millionaires now: "WhO iS gOnNa BuIlD iN sHiTty aReAs? SpEnD yOuR oWn mOnEy tO bUiLd tHeRe!" We both know what redlining is. You know that banks are not as willing to loan to areas of lower socio-economic standings. I recognize that these areas need to access fresh produce and groceries even though I do not have the skills to open one myself. We do have the ability to organize people, and there must be historic family grocers who fell on economic hard times when banks could more easily turn their back to them. Let's try and lean on these folks to help organize the new iteration of the local grocer: a grocery coop.

There was a recent report showing that the Central Neighborhood won a grant to spark the organization of one to replace a former Dave's Market. We may be able to glean away some expertise regarding organizing a Co-op and replicating it through more of our communities. Here is another article from Case Western University highlighting a food Co-Op that died in 2011 thanks in-part to the Whole Foods stealing enough patrons to run them into the ground. Also interesting how fast they were to raze that building. Does city council have any tools to stop this?

Common Objections to Local Grocer:

"But-t-t-t-t I like driving my car so much that I don't mind the extra steps" We aren't talking about liking something, we are talking about objectively moving people to their destinations as efficiently as possible. "What if I need to buy in bulk??" Then drive your car there you absolute Goblin. We aren't trying to blow up every car owned by every U.S. citizen. "What if I only want to go to one place for all of my needs?" Seek help because Mr. Walton won't fuck you no matter how much water you carry for him. The more you care about your local economy the less you would be shopping at those big box stores