A few observations on the Hood Store issue: It's interesting to note that Holiday and SuperAmerica have either closed or sold most of their "neighborhood" stores (but not the stores close to freeway exits, or major intersections in the 'burbs). I can't speak for SA, but the Erickson boys have not been known to turn down money--so why did they sell?
It could be that they couldn't compete with the independents. Now this is counterintuitive, because usually the chains can drive independents out of business by undercutting the prices. But if the "hoodies" are offering less than legal deals, it might work the opposite way of normal. I was just in Ireland, which, along with its newfound prosperity, is suffering from a huge epidemic of street crime. Something else happening is that there are major smuggling operations running from the Republic into Northern Ireland, which operates under UK laws, and has generally higher prices on fuel and cigarettes. It's so bad that it is estimated that the UK government is losing out on 480 million pounds worth of revenue from smuggled diesel fuel alone. Then, the legitimate retailers can't compete with the ones who buy the smuggled goods much cheaper. The good guys go bankrupt. Plus, it seems that the big players in the smuggling operations are the IRA and Protestant militants. It's so lucrative that there are reports of members of the two groups working together--they who were deadly enemies before. And neither group is shy about using murder to further business aims. The government is letting it slide for now, for fear of derailing the "peace" process. We used to have two nearby "neighborhood" grocery stores, both SuperValu's. A Black entepreneur bought both and was operating them, but they are now closed. I don't know why. We do most of our shopping at the (relatively new) Kowalski's in Camden, specifically to support a high-quality neighborhood store. The manager told me the store was struggling, but they were committed to trying to build up the customer base. Certainly Kowalski's does have prices somewhat higher than Cub or Rainbow, but they have better quality and service, too. M. G. Stinnett Jordan neighborhood 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. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ 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
