[drro]

Another typical example of Flint's continuing struggle: Hamady grocery store closing its doors on Flint's north end less than four months after opening: https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/ind...closing_i.html. The store owner says: 'We just didn't have enough traffic, enough community support.' In the comments section it is said it wasn't the lack of customers, but the lack of paying customers that caused to store to close ...

Still, a good thing people continue to believe and invest in Flint.

[craig11152]

I am a daily reader of M-Live including the comments. One certainly has to be careful about assuming too much in the comments but in addition to the theft theme there was mention of a boycott of sorts. One thing M-Live doesn't do much of is investigative reporting.Im sure that sort thing is beyond their budget in a free to read format.

[drro]

Originally Posted by craig11152

I am a daily reader of M-Live including the comments. One certainly has to be careful about assuming too much in the comments but in addition to the theft theme there was mention of a boycott of sorts. One thing M-Live doesn't do much of is investigative reporting.Im sure that sort thing is beyond their budget in a free to read format.

Why would north Flint residents boycott a grocery store? Usually there aren't that many grocery stores in the less desirable neighborhoods, only convenience stores. Perhaps Hamady didn't accept food stamps.

The owner did seem to refer to these two reasons for closing: not enough traffic(boycott) and not enough community support(shopping without paying).

[InchingWest]

Originally Posted by drro

Another typical example of Flint's continuing struggle: Hamady grocery store closing its doors on Flint's north end less than four months after opening: https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/ind...closing_i.html. The store owner says: 'We just didn't have enough traffic, enough community support.' In the comments section it is said it wasn't the lack of customers, but the lack of paying customers that caused to store to close ...

Still, a good thing people continue to believe and invest in Flint.

There's constant talk of "food deserts" in university circles and in liberal circles in general. To them there's some kind of conspiracy that grocery stores aren't opening in "underprivileged" areas and that the reason must be "racism".

The truth is the any business must be profitable to stay open for long (unless you're getting massive corporate tax breaks and/or government contracts: Amazon, Solyndra, Tesla, Google, etc.). Flint just doesn't have the customers despite the EBT cards rolling in.

And if you do have rampant theft, that's going to destroy a venture in an industry that already has a low-profit margin and a lot of product loss (shelf life of many goods). And what of workers? Were they able to find enough reliable workers to keep the store running? And were those workers dedicated and honest?

I don't know if it's a good thing for people to continue to "believe in Flint", whatever vague notions that phrase might entail. Let the beast keep eating itself. It deserves it's fate.

[Retroit]

Problem #1. It’s on the edge of town, surrounded by 50% farmland.

Problem #2. At least a dozen other grocery stores within two miles.

https://www.google.com/maps/search/g.../data=!3m1!1e3

[VM1138]

Originally Posted by InchingWest

There's constant talk of "food deserts" in university circles and in liberal circles in general. To them there's some kind of conspiracy that grocery stores aren't opening in "underprivileged" areas and that the reason must be "racism".

The truth is the any business must be profitable to stay open for long (unless you're getting massive corporate tax breaks and/or government contracts: Amazon, Solyndra, Tesla, Google, etc.). Flint just doesn't have the customers despite the EBT cards rolling in.

And if you do have rampant theft, that's going to destroy a venture in an industry that already has a low-profit margin and a lot of product loss (shelf life of many goods). And what of workers? Were they able to find enough reliable workers to keep the store running? And were those workers dedicated and honest?

I don't know if it's a good thing for people to continue to "believe in Flint", whatever vague notions that phrase might entail. Let the beast keep eating itself. It deserves it's fate.

First off, food deserts aren't a liberal conspiracy. It's a planning term for areas without groceries, that's it. It leads to unhealthy diets, which leads to higher medical costs and so on.

And that "beast" you refer to are people. Show some decency,even if you're hiding behind a keyboard.

Profitable or not, people need groceries. And food deserts are actually highly prevalent in rural white areas. So those "liberals" are trying to keep conservatives fed.

If you have to inject politics and weird anti-poor views into a non-political topic you're likely wrong. Retroit had a good point. It sounds like the market was just over saturated with groceries.