West Side Market woes

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by on3

I've been to both places many times. When I go to Jungle Jim's I can buy the same products I would buy as if I were in Italy, Spain, Greece, France, etc. Why? Because that is where they come from. I simply cannot do that to the same extent at West Side Market.

The West Side Market was never, ever a grocery store largely devoted to the purveyance of processed foods, whether domestic or imported. From the time of its construction, it had butcher shops and freezers in its basement. It is an architectural gem, and likely the best of the turn-of-the-century market buildings in North America (see first paragraph here).

Visitors to the West Side Market can experience living history, visualizing the time when street cars roamed America's streets, residential refrigerators and personal cars were very rare, supermarkets had not yet been invented, and obtaining fresh food was a chore made immensely easier by public markets, such as the West Side Market; these public markets greatly were built to increase public health. With its clock tower and vaulted ceiling with Gaustavino tile, the West Side Market is a joy to behold.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g...de.Market.html

The West Side Market is on the National Register of Historic Places. It's adjacent to downtown Cleveland with very robust, including rail rapid, mass transit connections. An entire market district has grown up around it (see the above linked discussion). It has played an historic role as a community anchor in Cleveland for over a century.

Jungle Jim's, by comparison, is an overgrown, suburban supermarket specializing in imported packaged and processed goods. Its offerings are inferior to specialized ethnic markets, such as Galucci's for Italian foods in Cleveland.

The uniqueness of Jungle Jim's also is tempered by the development of giant supermarkets such as Giant Eagle Market District stores, which offer a large number of the most popular imported packaged and processed foods.

[kpl1228]

Originally Posted by on3

Someone needs to step up and give fellow Ohioans the shopping experience they deserve. Cleveland needs a place like Jungle Jims.

200k square feet of shopping space....
180k worth of products....
Over 20 aisles devoted to imported foods from almost every country imaginable...

Folks in Cleveland shouldn't have to drive 4 hours just to experience this. The West Side Market has been a good band-aid but enough is enough.

My god is this debate still a thing?
Do we have to turn everything into this country into a Trader Joe's? Albeit with a broken hillbilly SW Ohio monorail?
WSM is iconic...and public. Thank God. Current issues are just a bump in the road in its awesome history.
If you want a better parallel, use Cincy's Findlay Market.

[bjimmy24]

There's nothing wrong with import stores. But I'd much rather have the WSM.

[Natural510]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

There's nothing wrong with import stores. But I'd much rather have the WSM.

They're both great for what they are. One with a large variety of fresh foods, the other with a vast selection of international groceries.

[Yac]

Several deleted posts later, I suggest you guys stay on topic before infractions start flying in here.
Yac.

[on3]

Originally Posted by Natural510

They're both great for what they are. One with a large variety of fresh foods, the other with a vast selection of international groceries.

Exactly.

WSM and Jungle Jim's offer different experiences and different products. All I'm saying that all cities could benefit by having something like both a Jungle Jim's and a WSM.