
Evolution of the Corner Store - oftenwrong
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/7/9/evolution-of-the-corner-store
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niftich
Corner stores were an essential feature when walking proximity to your
customer base was necessary, but between the economics of plopping a greyfield
Walmart on a busy avenue (as in the States), or a greenfield Carrefour or
Auchan on the ring road between the city and the exurbs (as in Europe), they
struggle enough on their own, without zoning or the town's own planning
commission being at fault.

As the article says, the decline of neighborhood shops carrying fresh produce
is one of the processes by which food deserts perpetuate. But the pivot to
chips and soda-selling gas stations -- where the fuel, also being a community
service, is just a hook sold as a loss leader to drive traffic to high-margin
drinks and snacks -- is an economic one, where the state of the emergent
market rewards an establishment selling 87, cigarettes and nonperishable Coke
and Lays more than one selling lettuce, tomatoes, and peaches. Towns can
distort this field to try and improve local outcomes (and they probably
should), but larger forces are also at play.

It could also be that some of the solutions come with new tradeoffs. Getting
sustainable markets of perishable items with US innerbelt settlement patterns
to compete favorably with supermarkets is probably harder, and a longer-term
venture than, say, setting up a delivery service that ships subsidized, fresh
foods to families in need -- but this solution doesn't do as much for
community cohesion, doesn't change settlement patterns, doesn't fix market
failures, and pollutes more in transport. Nonetheless, it can improve real
quality of life for many people. Negotiating such tradeoffs is where interest
groups begin to diverge.

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yial
Something that strikes me as interesting is the /rural/ corner store. These I
have seen in many small towns, they usually can make sandwiches and the like
to go, but also have a deli attached to that to buy meat by the pound. They
have frozen cases and dairy cases (not exhaustive but a few items) and then
some basic fresh fruit (apples. Bananas, etc) and some canned goods.

Interestingly they almost all seem to have their own dvd rental service as
well. Not a red box. But one actually run by them.

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cozzyd
It's surprising that a corner stor can survive on my block even though there
is both a trader Joe's and a full-service grocery a block away. I guess it's
relatively upscale and much faster (no waiting in line most of the time) which
helps.

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mnm1
Just to be clear, today's corner stores do not sell food. That is the problem.
Sugary drinks and potato chips are not real food, they are garbage. This isn't
exclusive to gas stations and other places like that. In San Francisco, it
still holds. There is either no food or food of such low quality as to count
as no food. I cannot go into these stores and buy a sandwich or ingredients
for one nor do they have fruits or vegetables to cook a meal. Also they are
overpriced and generally a ripoff that are mostly useless if your goal is to
not be hungry. Like everything else in America, I'm sure there is some twisted
economic explanation for this. I don't care too much because regardless of the
explanation, the only way to get decent food in America is to drive a few
miles and the only way to get good food, is to drive many miles. And I live in
a city with a bigger city next door. This idea that we can all have walkable
nice neighborhoods in America with amenities close by that this site tries to
push is frankly delusional in our current economy.

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craftyguy
The corner store by my house sells milk, eggs, frozen meals, and fruit. I've
seen similar offerings at corner stores around the US. Not all of them do, but
to assume they all don't is a rather ignorant approach.

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mnm1
So they sell ingredients for half a meal and that somehow qualifies as a
grocery store that can replace supermarkets? Not to mention the quality even
of these products is dubious and the price typically 2-3x. In no way can such
stores sustain a community or, more important to my original point, eliminate
driving to get quality food for a majority of Americans.

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craftyguy
You can definitely make meals out of what they carry, what I listed above is
not an exhaustive list.. Selection is somewhat limited, but if supermarkets
went away then I'd be willing to bet they would be more than happy to pick up
the slack by expanding their offerings.

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bluedino
There are a few interesting thing about corner stores.

The first is that almost none of them are owned by white Americans anymore.
For whatever reason, almost every store, even out in the boondocks is owned by
a person of Indian or Arab nationality. The Fox News fans will say it’s
because of tax exemptions rigged in their favor (I’m sure thats untrue), some
will say it’s the work ethic, some will say they’re the only people brave
enough to work at a store in a bad neighborhood. I’m sure it’s a combination
of the three.

Second, in the sketchy areas of bad neighborhoods, they are epicenters of
crime. Gambling, drug dealing, selling stolen merchandise, drive by shootings,
illegal purchasing of SNAP benefits... the stores are the first place the cops
go when investigating crimes.

They basically poison the surrounding neighborhood with drugs and alcohol, I’m
no Puritan but I could see it make sense to limit how many of these stores you
should allow in your town.

