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What and where in Ohio is like this concept? Why hasn't this concept taken off in Ohio's urban centers as it maybe has elsewhere?
I think that just has to do with the lack of people living in urban centers who will patronize these types of stores.
So what is Atlanta doing differently to allow these businesses to have success there? ATL is a very car oriented city and I don't necessarily know that these areas do have 1k people within walking distance except in Midtown...maybe.
Great article in the Atlanta newspaper today about the return of the small, urban grocery concept in that city.http://www.ajc.com/health/the-return-of-the-1387812.htmlWhat and where in Ohio is like this concept? Why hasn't this concept taken off in Ohio's urban centers as it maybe has elsewhere?
It's a lot easier to do an organic or upscale corner store, and a lot early-organic-movement community co-ops are still around after 30 or 40 years -- I know of a couple here in Columbus. The challenge is to get local food into corner and convenience stores in neighborhoods that have few options and little money. The deck is stacked against them. The national supply chain is geared toward big stores. I know of a Convenient Food Mart in Cleveland, on Clark, where the owner wanted to keep fresh produce in the store, but the distributors wouldn't bother with her. So she picked up cartons from the produce terminal -- but that was more than she needed. So she stopped at a supermarket on her way to work and bought retail for resale -- and discovered that it's cheaper to buy retail at a supermarket than to buy wholesale and pick it up yourself at the terminal.There are a lot of efforts to promote local food in Ohio, but a critical factor is to develop a local-food "infrastructure" -- a processing and distribution model that is efficient enough to hold down costs and expansive enough to serve the needs of big farms and small, and big stores and small. Cleveland has a lot of activity in putting this kind of stuff together, and so does Columbus: http://www.morpc.org/pdf/MORPC_LocalFoodBrochure_ExecutiveSummary.pdf
Thanks. Forgive my ignorance - where is "uptown," generally? Is that sort of the Playhouse Square area?
Quote from: rockandroller on March 21, 2012, 02:36:41 AMThanks. Forgive my ignorance - where is "uptown," generally? Is that sort of the Playhouse Square area?Your global moderator status needs to be reviewed
Sorry! I am always learning. In fact, I am certain I asked what "uptown" was in another thread where it was mentioned like a year ago, and it just did not stick. That is just not what anyone would logically consider "uptown" to my thinking. When did we stop calling it the University Circle area and start calling it "uptown?" It just doesn't jive to me. "Up" from where?
For the record, that article lists 4 stores in Atlanta, so I don't think we can really conclude that it's a significant "trend" taking off there, but not in Ohio. I can only speak for Cleveland, but if you count the two Constantinos in the city (with a third in Lakewood), plus the Marray Hill Market in Little Italy, I'm not sure you couldn't write the same article here.Maybe I under-estimate the willingness of Clevelanders to drive for anything, but I'm kind of surprised/disappointed a market like this hasn't popped up on Professor St. in Tremont.
University Circle Inc. president Chris Ronayne says that the term “Uptown” for University Circle and its surrounding neighborhoods is not new, even if it’s no longer widely used, and no, they’re not re-naming University Circle“The actual nomenclature of Uptown historically is not inaccurate as it relates to the area around East 105th,” he says. “We’ve used it from time to time — I wouldn’t say interchangeably — to reflect back at an era when University Circle and the surrounding neighborhoods were teeming with jazz clubs, vaudevillian theater and hot-spot restaurants. This place historically in the vernacular of locals was Uptown, which was larger than University Circle — Little Italy, Glenville, Fairfax, Hough.”
The trend is the opposite. Ohio used to have corner stores in every neighborhood, but they are disappearing.
BTW, is the name "Uptown" more contrived than any place that's been given a name/identity? Maybe we shouldn't call it University Circle anymore since the traffic circle was removed decades ago?!?! And actually, parts of University Circle have been called Uptown for many decades. But anyhoo, here's an article from last year by a woman whose opinions I don't always agree with (Why? Because all I want is to read the news, not someone's opinion of it)......Tuesday, May 10, 2011In Defense of the Corner Marketby Angie SchmittMuch has been made of the food desert phenomenon afflicting the industrial Midwest.GOOD Magazine, Dateline, NBC and countless others have weighed in on the apparent market failure that causes grocery stores to shun cities like Detroit and Cleveland like a bad case of head lice.This whole storyline reached a fever pitch earlier this year when it was widely circulated that the city of Detroit — all 140 miles of it — lacked a single grocery store. This was, of course, patently false. A quick Google search shows that there are dozens, even hundreds, of foodsellers populating Detroit’s neighborhoods.What type of grocer does business in down-and-dirty Detroit? One example is the Honey Bee Market, a family-owned business that has been operating in the city for five decades. It carries a wide selection of Central American ingredients, in addition to plenty of fruits and vegetables. The store was voted “most fun” by Detroit’s Metro Times.READ MORE AT:http://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/05/10/in-defense-of-the-corner-market/
-^ Cincinnati sort of has one with the Riddle Road Market off of Marshall next to campus though its not as upscale.Chicago really has embraced this concept, there are 3 of these in my neighborhood and when I was walking through the S. Loop which IMO is finally starting to form a cohesive neighborhood I found 3 or 4 of them just in the area I walked. They come in handy on winter days for me because the grocery is far to walk to and if I need something quick that isn't a basic staple I can go there. I was kind of hoping Mayberry Foodstuffs would be this kind of concept but the store was too small to match the service these places provide.
Quote from: neilworms on March 19, 2012, 06:05:44 AM-^ Cincinnati sort of has one with the Riddle Road Market off of Marshall next to campus though its not as upscale.Chicago really has embraced this concept, there are 3 of these in my neighborhood and when I was walking through the S. Loop which IMO is finally starting to form a cohesive neighborhood I found 3 or 4 of them just in the area I walked. They come in handy on winter days for me because the grocery is far to walk to and if I need something quick that isn't a basic staple I can go there. I was kind of hoping Mayberry Foodstuffs would be this kind of concept but the store was too small to match the service these places provide.That store has a cult following.
Quote from: David on April 01, 2012, 05:53:30 AMQuote from: neilworms on March 19, 2012, 06:05:44 AM-^ Cincinnati sort of has one with the Riddle Road Market off of Marshall next to campus though its not as upscale.Chicago really has embraced this concept, there are 3 of these in my neighborhood and when I was walking through the S. Loop which IMO is finally starting to form a cohesive neighborhood I found 3 or 4 of them just in the area I walked. They come in handy on winter days for me because the grocery is far to walk to and if I need something quick that isn't a basic staple I can go there. I was kind of hoping Mayberry Foodstuffs would be this kind of concept but the store was too small to match the service these places provide.That store has a cult following.lol mostly because of their nonchalant attitude towards checking ID....but that's another story.
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Topic: The return of the corner store (Read 2203 times)
