Perhaps if the intended customers won't shop-lift from this store another will open.
I hope no one thinks that's a racist statement, it absolutely is not. Whites, blacks, and latinos all shopped at that store. But it is the reason why they could not get a grocer after Albertson's folded their tent. I also understand many felt that Albertson's had the highest prices in town. The grocery business is a for-profit business, not a damn charity.
Take care of the neighborhood and the neighborhood will take care of you.
No, it's not a racist statement, per se. But it doesn't put things in the proper context when you make a blanket statement lumping "intended customers" in with shoplifters.
Most customers in higher crime areas aren't shoplifters.
Most grocery store chains have razor-thin profit margins.
Most national grocery store chains like Albertson's wouldn't touch a higher crime area with a ten-foot-pole. They left higher crime urban areas a decade or two ago....
DETROIT: A City Without Chain Grocery StoresSheena Harrison, CNN, July 22, 2009
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/22/smallbusiness/detroit_grocery_stores.smb/index.htmI was rooting for an ALDI to go to that location on Pine and Peoria. I like them much better than Sav-a-lot. I occasionally will make a special trip to the ALDI's on 129th and 21st St. Put in my quarter to unlock my shopping cart, buy mostly ALDI's generic brands, save money, sack my groceries using my own bags... go home.
My strategy for Tulsa: Entice ALDI to the northside now...... then, after you convince the Germans who own ALDI that they got a good deal there..... convince them to put a Trader Joes downtown a few years later......
Otherwise, Tulsa may get it's first Trader Joes someday......... in Jenks.