Booker T Hodges writes about a very serious problem in impacted
communities. Throughout history there has been stories of merchants who
operate in low income areas of cities, sell rotten produce, overpriced
goods, etc. I recently read the "Condition of
the Working Class in England", by Fredriech
Engels, written in 1845, were he wrote about market venders who would
sell overpriced, often stale or rotten goods in the low income
districts of London. The merchants who Engels wrote about lived outside
the city, did not employ people from the working class areas (they were
usually family run businesses) and they made their living by exploiting
the basic needs of the working class. I see disturbing similarities
between the merchants Engels wrote about in 1845 and some of the store
owners who operate in impacted communities in Minneapolis. I will give
one example:
Abraham Awaijane, who owns the Big
Stop store on 26th and Knox and the gas station on 26th and Penn, is a
man who showed up to our neighborhood forum in Jordan this summer and
promised our neighborhood that he would be a good business owner in our
neighborhood, discourage drug dealing, call the police, and even employ
off duty officers. However, today we are faced with a store owner who
sells scales, small bags for cocaine rocks, blunts, and his store
serves open food and is infested with cockroaches. The paraphernalia he
sells promotes the very activity he clams to want to end.
Unfortunately, he makes a great deal of money off the dealers who hang
out all day long dealing drugs along 26th Avenue duck into his store
(usually when the police drive by) to buy paraphernalia and food from
his store. He employs people only from his family or friend network,
who all live in the suburbs and they tend to treat the customers with
extreme disrespect. They remind me off something out of "Do the right
thing" a film by Spike Lee. We need clean, respectable, neighborhood
corner stores--the opposite of what a lot of impacted communities have
now.
I hope Booker T. Hodges contacts the official at City Hall with an
address of the store he is writing about. Together lets work to get rid
of businesses who continually exploit residents in impacted
communities.
Kelly Phillips
Jordan
Booker Hodges wrote:
This is the first
part of the Hood Stores story. I never posted this part because I was
duck hunting during the week it was published.
Investigative team sniffs out ‘Hood Stores’
By: Booker T Hodges
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 10/17/2003
First of a two-part column
Have you ever wondered what goes on in what I will call ''Hood
Stores''? You know, the corner stores located in areas where there is a
high concentration of poverty and all the things normally associated
with poverty? These corner stores are located all over the metro area.
The Booker T Investigative Team spent two months this summer monitoring
what goes on in these stores. Let me say that it isn’t pretty. These
stores prey on poor people, and until now no one has spoken up about
it. I will discuss the atmospheres, products, and customer services
that my investigative team witnessed at these Hood Stores.
The atmosphere of these stores is deplorable, to say the least. ''When
I walked inside the store, I noticed a stench that reeked of dead
animals. There were flies flying around and ants crawling on the
floor,'' says Investigative Team Member Ted after visiting a Hood Store
in St. Paul.
When Ted asked the person behind the counter what the smell was coming
from and why there were so many bugs flying around the store, the
person responded by saying, ''Don’t worry about it. You buy something
or leave before I call the police.''
Ted proceeded to purchase a pack of Black Label bacon for $6.57. When
Ted had taken the bacon home, he noticed that it had an expiration date
that was two weeks old. When he took the bacon back to the store, he
was told that he couldn’t return it.
''The store had coolers that were only 55 degrees when they should have
been 40 degrees, and I assume that is what is causing the store to
smell as bad as it did — because the meat was spoiling. The store had
poor lighting, small aisles, and just looked grimy. This store was
similar to most of the Hood Stores I visited during this
investigation,'' says Ted.
The products these store offer in many ways contribute to the crime in
the neighborhood. ''I found the product line of the Hood Stores in
Minneapolis to be in line with stores in Third World countries,'' says
Mike, another member of the investigative team. ''I have traveled to
Mexico, Jamaica, and Bosnia, and stores in those countries have product
lines that are similar to our Hood Stores.''
Hood Stores sell products that you won’t find in normal or mainstream
stores. For example, every Hood Store we visited was guaranteed to have
Zig Zags, blunts, cannabis magazines, African American hair products,
pre-paid phone cards, cannabis pipes, small baggies (bags used to
package a single rock of cocaine), and high-priced baby food. But often
these stores lacked fresh vegetables/fruit, fresh fish, and fresh meat.
In several of the Hood Stores we were able to purchase single Zig Zag
papers for $.05, single cigarettes for $.25, and single blunt cigars
for $.50. It is illegal to sell these items individually, but who is
going to report it?
The price of the products in these stores exceeded mainstream stores by
an average of 300 percent. In several of the stores we visited, some of
the products had two different price tags on them. ''One of the Hood
Stores in Minneapolis was selling baby clothes with Target price tags
on them,'' says Mike. ''When I asked why does this item have Target
price tags on it, I was told that they were purchased at wholesale from
Target. When we checked with Target, we were informed that Target
doesn’t sell its merchandise wholesale to anyone because Target has a
very few select products that they themselves make. We were also
informed by Target that they don’t produce any baby clothing themselves
and purchase all their baby clothing from merchandisers. So how did
this store obtain these baby products?
We found customer service at these Hood Stores to be unsatisfactory at
best. The African American men members of our team were treated with
the most disrespect, whereas the African American females were treated
with the most respect. Often the Black male members of the team were
followed around the store and watched by store personnel. One shop even
went as far as dialing 911 and having the operator hold on the phone
until one of the Black male members left the store.
Half of the people working at these stores had no idea how much
something cost. In several of the stores we visited, the store clerk
made up a price on the spot.
In part two of this column, I will talk about the illegal activity that
we witnessed taking place in these Hood Stores and profile the owners
of these stores. I will also look at the impact these stores have on
poor communities.
If you are being abused or know someone who is being abused you can
call the following numbers: Harriet Tubman Center, 612-825-0000;
Domestic Abuse Project, 612-673-3526; Minnesota Domestic Abuse Hotline,
1-866-223-1111; National Domestic Abuse Hotline, 1-800-799-SAFE.
Booker T welcomes reader responses to [EMAIL PROTECTED],
or you can call the Spokesman at 612-827-4021 and leave a message.
Booker T Hodges
North side
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