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You'll recall that many of the city's supermarkets have been struggling to stay afloat due to high rents, skyrocketing electricity costs, and shrinking profit margins (here's a map). Today Albor Ruiz at the Daily News points to another factor: stiff competition from BJ's, the giant wholesale club store that will soon open two more locations in Brooklyn. But because of the $45 membership fee and BJ's refusal to accept food stamps or subsidies under the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, the store is not an option for many lower-income residents.
Joe Verderosso, who owns two Key Food supermarkets in Canarsie, says, "I have lived here all my life, and I know that many people are on tight budgets. They - especially the elderly - need a supermarket in their neighborhood. These club stores put everybody out of business. When they are no longer profitable, they close, leaving behind an empty building and a neighborhood in decay."
Looking to the future, Ruiz warns that unless something is done supermarkets could soon go the way of the old trolley car. The Bloomberg administration has been considering offering economic incentives for supermarket owners, and the mayor has also been pushing for more produce carts in under-served areas. Which would be a good start, because in many neighborhoods the bodega or the snack food aisle of Duane Reade is the only convenient option.
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Having so many big box stores in NYC makes me laugh. I realize some people in the boroughs live in actual houses with garages and/or basements. But overall, do apartment dwellers really have enough room to store all the giant wholesale-sized packages that you find on BJs shelves?
Where are apartment dwellers putting this stuff?!?!
If I shopped there, I'd be using a 24-pack of toilet paper as a coffee table.
I can't believe they don't take foodstamps. That's messed up.
"supermarkets could soon go the way of the old trolley car"
According to an article in today's NYTimes the trolley is making a comeback.
Going to a supermarket these days is like shopping for a decent flight somewhere - this one has the right times but crappy price, that one has a good price but you can't fly at a reasonable time. The Key Food near me in Bayside, Queens has produce prices that are at the level where I can't afford anything other than cabbage, kale and broccoli. The Waldbaum's is even higher; a store where they never met a sale they...wait a minute, there are no sales there.
I may live in an apartment but I can certainly share a membership with at least one other person and reap the benefits of lower priced meat and produce (and whatever else) that way.
Plus, they don't hire the rudest and sourest people as cashiers (like Key Food does).
Soon the nation will become three big boxes housed under one large dome. And we'll all hate it, but we'll keep supporting it because we save three percent on groceries and eight percent on home electronics.
Joe Verderosso, who owns two Key Food supermarkets in Canarsie, says ..."These club stores put everybody out of business. When they are no longer profitable, they close, leaving behind an empty building and a neighborhood in decay."
Wait, is that the same Joe Verderosso whose Key Food stores helped make Canarsie the wonderous place it is today?
We need a Wegmans in Brooklyn not a bj's.
I think the advent of Fresh Direct is also hurting supermarkets. There are plenty of people in my neighborhood who order groceries through Fresh Direct even though there is a supermarket on the next block.
"When they are no longer profitable, they close, leaving behind an empty building and a neighborhood in decay."
Doesn't any store that goes out of business do this?
I agree with Splicer. I paid $3 the other day for a peach at the Food Emporium. Does Trader Joe's accept foodstamps? That place, minus the insane lines, is the model of what a supermarket should be.
There is a grocery store less than 2 blocks from my apt.- yet I still prefer Fresh Direct because all of their food is FRESH. Our grocery (The Associated on 4th ave in Bay Ridge) always has expired food (and numerous complaints to manager has yielded no change). If they had fresh food I would go there. Bottom line, their food sucks.
Also- the article mentions skyrocketing electric bills. So the retails stores that leave their doors open and let the A/C flow into the street get reduced electric rates but groceries don't? Is this the case?
Sorry- I meant The Associated on 3rd Ave.
I agree with bornbrednewyorker about a Wegmans, though. Right by my apartment, please.
"There is a grocery store less than 2 blocks from my apt.- yet I still prefer Fresh Direct because all of their food is FRESH."
Fresh is nice.
I can't count the number of items i've seen in my Key Food and my local 24 hour bodega/grocery that are way past expired.
Check your expiration dates everyone!
Goodbye Big Box Club Stores. Hello Nationwide Economic Collapse!