urbanSTL

The Atlantic - The Great Grocery Squeeze
How a federal policy change in the 1980s created the modern food desert

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... an/680765/

^Oh, shocking. Reagan tossed out regulation, big business got bigger driving smaller companies out of business, and then they raised prices and pocketed the difference. (Much as they always do.) Say it ain't so! Yeah, Reagan's deregulations screwed us all. Except a few fancy people who went to white house dinners, I suppose. And what do we have now? A deregulation campaign run by fancy people who eat dinner with the president. Brace yourself. And keep your passport current.

TheWayoftheArch_V2.0 wrote: ↑

Dec 17, 2024

Dierberg's is officially back for The Market at Olive project in U. City. 

https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/dierb ... -at-olive/

Dierbergs in, Pete’s out. Sad about little market going away. Would rather see Dierberg’s try a location somewhere in south city but at least that U City development is attracting things. U City needs a tax base boost too

Peeked in the window of the old Field's Foods on Lafayette and it looks like AT Still has turned it into a rec center of sorts? At least there are like four stationary bikes and a couple pop-up pickleball courts. That's it so far.

delmar2debaliviere2downtown wrote: ↑

Dec 17, 2024

TheWayoftheArch_V2.0 wrote: ↑

Dec 17, 2024

Dierberg's is officially back for The Market at Olive project in U. City. 

https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/dierb ... -at-olive/

Dierbergs in, Pete’s out. Sad about little market going away. Would rather see Dierberg’s try a location somewhere in south city but at least that U City development is attracting things. U City needs a tax base boost too

I know I’m not breaking new ground here, but I would love to see some new grocery options in south city - the existing options are very tired (looking at you, Schnucks). I had to leave St Louis for a while to realize how truly bad the grocery options are here.

I visited Portland recently and went to a Natural Grocers location - something like that would work well I think and they’ve got locations as close as Columbia. I’ve always thought a new grocery store would work well along Vandeventer for the near south side neighborhoods.

The people of South City yearn for a Trader Joes. 

^We do? Why? And where? I guess you could put it where the Big Lots was, in a little bit of the old Venture. (There used to be a Schnucks there, back in the day. And a Kroger nearby.) Just whatever you do, no teardowns for it, no new parking lots, and don't replace any of the tiny handful of groceries we already have.

Personally I say no, we don't. But your mileage may vary.

Ebsy wrote: ↑

Feb 06, 2025

The people of South City yearn for a Trader Joes. 

Trader Joes has amazing PR or advertising because they have captured so many minds. I don't get it. Mostly ultra processed food with tiny selection of meats and veggies. Meats were expensive from what I've seen too. Don't recall pricing on vegetables.

I never got the TJ appeal. I have not been to one in decades. They seem to be everywhere in California Is it the good tasting affordable wine? Most of the food is packaged and a look at the ingredients of which many  fall into the category that this 2023 good eye opening book addresses https://a.co/d/idMtJPf


 

Quality is not that great but it’s the perfect grocery model for people who don’t know how to cook and who live by themselves.

Won’t have things you need for a recipe but you’ll walk out of there with some snacks and easy meals

Their wine selection actually is pretty solid

With the low amount of urban format grocery stores here (and really everywhere in the US), they have a model that can easily be applied to the urban format because of its small size, though they choose not to do so in an urban format more times than not.

I think it would be a good fit for some of our neighborhoods like the Grove, Delmar Loop.

I think in the next 5 years, we will see one go in St. Charles County, U-City and one go somewhere in StL city - I will say they go in the Kingshighway/Chippewa area but there could be lots of potential choice.

They already have distribution here so it’s just a matter of time for them to open a few additional locations

flipz wrote: ↑

Feb 06, 2025

Ebsy wrote: ↑

Feb 06, 2025

The people of South City yearn for a Trader Joes. 

Trader Joes has amazing PR or advertising because they have captured so many minds. I don't get it. Mostly ultra processed food with tiny selection of meats and veggies. Meats were expensive from what I've seen too. Don't recall pricing on vegetables.

Too many seed oils, right?

Ideally they could redevelop the shuttered Shop & Save plaza at the City/County line on Watson into a mixed use development with a Trader Joe's anchoring it.

JaneJacobsGhost wrote: ↑

Feb 06, 2025

flipz wrote: ↑

Feb 06, 2025

Ebsy wrote: ↑

Feb 06, 2025

The people of South City yearn for a Trader Joes. 

Trader Joes has amazing PR or advertising because they have captured so many minds. I don't get it. Mostly ultra processed food with tiny selection of meats and veggies. Meats were expensive from what I've seen too. Don't recall pricing on vegetables.

Too many seed oils, right?

Anything that can be made in a factory.

bring it to St. Louis! H-Mart Stays Winning
How the cult grocer went from a single Korean corner store in Queens, NY to America's largest Asian supermarket with $1B+ in sales.
https://www.readtrung.com/p/h-mart-stays-winning

chris fuller wrote: ↑

Mar 29, 2025

bring it to St. Louis! H-Mart Stays Winning
How the cult grocer went from a single Korean corner store in Queens, NY to America's largest Asian supermarket with $1B+ in sales.
https://www.readtrung.com/p/h-mart-stays-winning

I was talking about St. Louis getting an H-Mart with a friend last night funnily enough. I assume somewhere up on Olive would be the natural location but also I don't know if St. Louis has an area that matches where H-Marts are usually located.

Ebsy wrote: ↑

Mar 30, 2025

chris fuller wrote: ↑

Mar 29, 2025

bring it to St. Louis! H-Mart Stays Winning
How the cult grocer went from a single Korean corner store in Queens, NY to America's largest Asian supermarket with $1B+ in sales.
https://www.readtrung.com/p/h-mart-stays-winning

I was talking about St. Louis getting an H-Mart with a friend last night funnily enough. I assume somewhere up on Olive would be the natural location but also I don't know if St. Louis has an area that matches where H-Marts are usually located.

I would like to see an H-Mart come to STL. Usually they buy or lease an empty building and convert it to their grocery stores which also includes a mini mall with bakeries, food courts, hair salons, gift shops, etc. The perfect place for that would be the old Weekends Only on Manchester Rd in West County, but Pan-Asia would be across the street. However, they do just grocery stores like the store in Urbana, IL.

If they come to the city or anywhere close it would likely be near Wash-U. The Former Field's Foods on DeBaliviere could make sense.