New Town food desert is miles from a grocery store. How do residents get fed?

[thelakelander]

It's pretty crazy that a 2.3 mile bus ride takes 2 hours.....and all we can talk about is U2C.....

Like Wilson, if 79-year-old Van Davis wants a hamburger, french fries or fried shrimp dinner, it's just a short walk from his apartment to find a Popeyes, Burger King or Checkers fast food restaurant.

But whenever he goes shopping for collard greens, apples or fresh-cut meats, he has to take two buses for a two-hour trip to shop at his nearest full-service grocery store 2.3 miles away -- the Harveys Supermarket on Market Street near downtown.

Full article: https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/local/2021/02/11/jacksonville-new-town-food-desert/6598590002/

[thelakelander]

Interesting. What could be a low hanging fruit solution to inner city food deserts (existing local markets, corner stores, etc. having their offerings expanded), appears to not be able to tap into the grocery incentives program?

Desiring to serve the community, Sameer Kandah opened a smaller-scale version of the store in 2009 that remains in operation at the corner of Beaver Street and McDuff Avenue that's just more than two miles away from the New Town neighborhood. Kandah was a co-owner of Premier Foods with the Asker family, in charge of the seafood department, for 30 years.   

Kandah said he has been approached about opening a second store on the northside, but he couldn't get funding from the city for start-up costs like Winn-Dixie and Roew's IGA Supermarket.

''There’s no incentive money, just pay your taxes and if you don’t pay your taxes, we will shut you down,'' Kandah said. "That’s the bottom line, That’s the bottom line, pay, pay and don’t get anything. This is the big corporation plans to get rid of all the small guys and then they have the monopoly all over the market. Once all the small stores are out of the equation. The consumer has no choice but to pay what they dictate.''

[fieldafm]

Although New Town does not have a 30,000-50,000 square foot big box grocery store- the neighborhood has a Family Dollar, Dollar General, Premier Meats and the Jacksonville Farmers Market.

Ultimately, New Town Success Zone director Mia Hobdy said their objective is to encourae a non-traditional grocery provider to locate in the New Kings Road corridor.

''One of the things I would love to see is a collaborative effort around improving the development along this corridor but in partnership with a business incubator where community members who are already selling different types of wares or whatever might have the opportunity to scale that up a bit.''

This is where the disconnect to me seems to be. The Jacksonville Farmers Market, which received a $150k grant from the Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development Fund within the last 3 years to provide a larger shed and better sidewalks, is open 365 days a year. 

The JFM is literally the same 'business incubator where community members who are already selling different types of wares' quoted in the article.  What has been the disconnect between New Town Success Zone and JFM?  If there is a desire to offer more hard goods (the middle of the store, that has become an ever-shrinking part of grocery stores over the last two decades), what specifically is stopping a partnership utilizing the existing JFM facilities (which also includes an empty big-box grocery building)?

[thelakelander]

^JFM isn't the Kings Road corridor but it does seem like an easy low hanging fruit no-brainer. JFM has that 23k square foot former Premier Foods building in ownership and sitting empty. The adjacent sheds also have space for more vendors. On the surface, it would seem that only a fraction of incentives funds to implement a quick solution there, would be needed as opposed to building something from scratch or attempting to attract a popular big box chain that clearly has no interest in serving the neighborhood.

Along Kings, there's two Family Dollars, a Dollar General between Myrtle and Grand Park and Prime Time Market near EWC. There's also a Prime Stop at Beaver and Tyler and the Premier Meats further down near McDuff. All seem to be potential opportunities for partnerships that can expand the variety of items in existing locations within walking distance of a large swath of the neighborhood.

[fieldafm]

JFM isn't the Kings Road corridor but it does seem like an easy low hanging fruit no-brainer.

Fair, but it is in the neighborhood and doesn't require a multiple transfer bus trip to Downtown's Harveys, either.  Publix and Southeastern Grocers isn't coming to the neighborhood... and even with incentives you'd likely be hard-pressed to entice Save A Lot or Rowes to open up a large operation there, given that they both have existing locations 4 and 3.5 miles away from EWC (along a roadway with superior AADT).   

Now that these programs have been in place for more than 5 years, the success rate of corner store conversion programs (introducing perishables to convenient stores) hasn't been impressive. Its much more cost-efficient to simply direct money to existing food distribution organizations like Feeding Northeast Florida (which does have a presence in New Town). Those larger hunger-relief organizations have robust logistic networks already in place.  Perishables require quite a bit of volume to become financially viable for most operators, and the typical mom and pop corner store isn't going to spend several days a week dealing directly with sourcing, particularly for product lines they are making little, if any, money on.

The more and more that these types of programs roll out nationwide, the more I become convinced that partnering with existing businesses that already have a soft goods backbone and expertise in place is the way for municipalities to successfully tackle the food desert problem. The grocery business is a low-margin, high turnover operation. That's frankly why the Dollar Generals/Family Dollars of the world are so efficient. In New Town's case, JFM is that kind of operator.

[thelakelander]

JFM isn't the Kings Road corridor but it does seem like an easy low hanging fruit no-brainer.

Fair, but it is in the neighborhood and doesn't require a multiple transfer bus trip to Downtown's Harveys, either.  Publix and Southeastern Grocers isn't coming to the neighborhood... and even with incentives you'd likely be hard-pressed to entice Save A Lot or Rowes to open up a large operation there, given that they both have existing locations 4 and 3.5 miles away from EWC.

I agree 100%

Now that these programs have been in place for more than 5 years, the success rate of corner store conversion programs (introducing perishables to convenient stores) hasn't been impressive.

I don't know the history here but would be interested to know the reasons why these programs haven't been successful. Is it something within the application process itself or something else?

Its much more cost-efficient to simply direct money to existing food distribution organizations like Feeding Northeast Florida (which does have a presence in New Town). Those larger hunger-relief organizations have robust logistic networks already in place.  Perishables require quite a bit of volume to become financially viable for most operators, and the typical mom and pop corner store isn't going to spend several days a week dealing directly with sourcing, particularly for product lines they are making little, if any, money on.

The more and more that these types of programs roll out nationwide, the more I become convinced that partnering with existing businesses that already have a soft goods backbone and expertise in place is the way for municipalities to successfully tackle the food desert problem. The grocery business is a low-margin, high turnover operation. That's frankly why the Dollar Generals/Family Dollars of the world are so efficient. In New Town's case, JFM is that kind of operator.

Are there any examples of Dollar Generals and Family Dollars offering perishables? They seem to be all over the place these days and still rapidly expanding.

[Wacca Pilatka]

^ Dollar General and Family Dollar locations sometimes have a freezer or refrigerator case with a limited amount of food options, but certainly not something where you can fulfill all of your grocery needs.  Dollar General does have a larger concept store called Dollar Market with a full range of perishable items; I've been in one in New Smyrna Beach.  Not sure how prevalent they are.

[thelakelander]

^Thanks! I see DG also has a DG Fresh concept. Seems like another potential solution, considering they've recently opened locations in most areas considered to be food deserts in Jax.

https://www.businessinsider.com/dollar-general-dg-fresh-grocery-2020-8#:~:text=DG%20Fresh%20is%20a%20program,traditionally%20lacked%20a%20grocery%20element.

[fieldafm]

Is it something within the application process itself or something else?

No, its more of a challenge in that perishables don't fit into the business model very well, particularly for a mom and pop operator that doesn't' have the back end logistic side in place to support the investment. I probably did a bad job of touching on that. 

An independent C-store operator doesn't have the economies of scale to buy perishables with a limited shelf life from a distributor- the food cost is too high if you only have one, two, maybe three stores. The flip side of the paradox, is that an independent C-store operator isn't going to travel down to the wholesale side of JFM 2-3 times a week to source product.  Particularly given that the product line requires turnover and high volumes to be profitable. 

Most operators that have tried the corner store conversion programs, drop out because they are making little if any money.... and have wasted a lot of time without a payoff.

You can't sell 8 apples and a dozen bunches of greens a week, while a chunk of the inventory you did buy was lost to shrinkage, and make any money doing so. 

The ones that are doing well, have a more hybrid model which are generally tied into an organization like a Second Harvest or are buying from grocery liquidation channels (which is basically the business model for a local place like Solomons).

Are there any examples of Dollar Generals and Family Dollars offering perishables? They seem to be all over the place these days and still rapidly expanding.

I'm familiar with DG's operations, not so much FD. DG offers frozen foods (and even some cheap cuts of frozen meats) nearly everywhere. Dollar General offers perishables in parts of the country where they have cold storage facilities. The DGX concept is something they are rolling out in the Southeast, mainly to enter the C-store segment, which is profitable and growing. But something else DGX is doing, is giving DG a test bed to begin to expand a perishable distribution network to other parts of the country. A secondary hope of the DGX program, is that if it takes off, then DG has the financial incentive to buy or build more cold storage facilities, in which they could also utilize for the DG's general good store format.  Right now, its pretty easy to tap into an existing distributor (like Dandee or Martin Brothers, locally) to serve a DGX c-store... but once you get up to scale, its more cost-effective to have your own prep kitchens and cold storage facilities.

https://www.moderncities.com/article/2018-jan-dollar-general-investing-in-cities-with-dgx-concept

[thelakelander]

Very interesting and opportunist move by DG. They are positioned to take advantage of having an existing footprint in food deserts across the southeast. It seems from an economic development perspective, pursuing a cold storage hub would be a good idea as they eventually expand into the region. Overall, there does seem to be a variety of options to resolve the challenges of our food deserts if we're willing forgo the dream of convincing full scale supermarket chain like Publix to open additional stores in the inner city.

[fsu813]

Regarding the challenges mom & pop corner stores and perishables ...... how has the Superette at Pearl & West 7th been successful through the decades, where it seems others cannot? They have produce, meat, coolers, etc.

[fieldafm]

Regarding the challenges mom & pop corner stores and perishables ...... how has the Superette at Pearl & West 7th been successful through the decades, where it seems others cannot? They have produce, meat, coolers, etc.

I think you answered your own question, in that they have been doing it for decades and have established a financially-viable distribution network for their soft goods.  The Superette is essentially what Premier Foods used to be (size, product mix, etc). When Jerry Asker passed, his descendants chose to not continue the grocery business and instead focus on the restaurant industry.. which was a more financially viable proposition.

The smaller C-store owners have a business model in place that works for them.  Trying to force them to do something that isn't profitable to them, and where they don't have a longstanding back-end infrastructure system in place, isn't the best carrot and stick. If it was, the corner store conversion programs would all be wildly successful. For the most part, they aren't. 

The reality is the grocery business has changed dramatically over the last two decades. Even smaller, independent grocery stores have devoted more and more of their store's real estate to prepared foods with in-house kitchen facilities.  Native Sun is the perfect example of that, locally.

Have the owners of the Superette expressed interest in expanding to new locations?

[fieldafm]

Overall, there does seem to be a variety of options to resolve the challenges of our food deserts if we're willing forgo the dream of convincing full scale supermarket chain like Publix to open additional stores in the inner city.

Agreed.

My point is that the real, viable solutions utilize the existing framework that the big box stores already have in place... that's way more than half of the battle. It's just that the end of that distribution channel won't include a 50,000 square foot store- it will more resemble a mobile market, or existing multi-vendor permanent marketplace. Organizations like Feeding Northeast Florida and the Jacksonville Farmers Market are already operating off the backbone of Walmart, Publix and Southeastern Grocers (Winn Dixie, Sav-A-Lot).