(Resent with sig line at bottom) This point begs the question of what role the city should and can play in the role of economic and community development. And I raise these question in light of spending more than 10 years working with neighborhoods including Phillips (1985) to identify and help develop marketing opportunities to attract and retain business, and then another 5 years working with retailers, including supermarkets, in their market planning and where best locations can be successful to locate stores.
Without doing a specific study of specifically available sites, I expect the challenge with these neighborhoods, from a supermarket's perspective, is that these neighborhoods are being served by other stores. Grocery store site selection is based on economic modeling that uses a geographic methodology to understand where people and their expenditures flow to shop. And while the incomes of a neighborhood might be considered important, the difference in dollars expended by household income just don't make as much a difference, at least as compared to the affect of existing competition. Inserting a new store into the mix shifts the flow. If inadequate dollars flow to the proposed site, the store is not economically feasible. And grocery stores have thin margins, so there's little room for error. And with the competitiveness of the grocery market, there's little room for poor performing stores. And so that again raises the question of what role the city can or should play? Should it subsidize the development of a retailer that is found through the retailer's economic modeling to be inadequate to support a store? Steve Kotvis Kenwood > > Phillips, Ventura Village, Elliot Park, Central, > Powderhorn Park and Corcoran have 47,000+ people and > no grocery store. Their residents have to cross major > freeways on either side to get to a retail shopping > area with a grocery store or go south of 38th St. > > Barb Lickness > Whittier > > ===== > "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change > the world. Indeed, > it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software > http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com > REMINDERS: > 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at > [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. > 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. > ________________________________ > > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls -- Steve Kotvis ------ End of Forwarded Message REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
