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by to3m 4353 days ago
The first hit for "grocery shops in detroit" is an article debunking the idea that there are no grocery shops in Detroit: http://www.urbanophile.com/2011/01/25/yes-there-are-grocery-...

Of course, perhaps you live in Detroit, and have 2014-era information, in which case you would know more than me. I merely decided to search for this because I recalled reading years ago this guy who wrote a blog article about his favourite Detroit supermarkets. (And the article above is that same guy. I suppose Detroit bloggers aren't that thick on the ground.) It certainly seems implausible that a city of 700,000 couldn't support at least one centrally-located food shop.

(I live in a city in the UK, population 500,000, and it has numerous grocery stores. As well as the ones I usually visit, there's one a mile away from my house - a decent size one to boot - that I never even knew existed until last month. I just drove down one particular side street to look at a house that was for sale... and there it was. You don't need a huge catchment area to support a grocery store, it seems.)

None of this is to suggest that Detroit is or isn't some hellhole...
1 comments
thisisdave 4353 days ago
It was mostly true in 2007 [1]:

>Detroit just watched its last mainstream grocer, Farmer Jack, close its doors for good.

[1] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1247787...

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to3m 4353 days ago
It seems like the problem is simply that there aren't any national grocery chains active in Detroit. That may be unusual, but it's something of a far cry from there being no grocery stores at all.

People are mammals, not snakes. They need to eat! Where there are 700,000 people, no matter how much many of them live in poverty, you can be certain that there is enough demand for food to support at least one grocery store...

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briandh 4353 days ago
> you can be certain that there is enough demand for food to support at least one grocery store...

People need food, but grocery stores aren't the only place to get it. I can't speak about Detroit specifically, but it is common for inner city neighborhoods to only have fast food restaurants and "corner stores" -- glorified convenience stores that make most of their money on tobacco, alcohol, and lottery tickets, but happen to have some food as well. They are a far cry from what most people would call a grocery store (even compared to smaller ones like Aldi, Trader Joe's, or Piggly Wiggly).

Now, there may be a grocery store 15 minutes away by car, but that distance becomes significantly more troublesome when you have to take a bus.

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