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“When we announced the closings, a lot of people in the community told us they wished we had let them know the stores were in trouble so they could have done something to help…Well, now you know. The Edgewood store needs support.”

So said Greg TenEyck, director of public affairs for Safeway Stores, Inc., in a recent article on the precarious financial state in which the Washington area’s second largest grocery chain finds some of its stores (R. Charry, “Third Safeway Could Close in Inner-city DC,” The Common Denominator, Oct. 12, 1998). The Edgewood Safeway, located at Rhode Island Avenue and 4th Street, NE, may be next on the chopping block following the October 3 closings of Safeway stores on Milwaukee Place, SE, and Rhode Island Avenue and 3rd Street, NW. The short-notice closings of the District stores were part of a larger shutdown of seven Safeways throughout the company’s Eastern division, including a store in Alexandria, VA.

While Mr. TenEyck did not specify what specific type of support the Edgewood Safeway needs, the subtle blackmail implied in his statement cannot be missed. That a large California-based corporation can essentially take over D.C. communities, outcompete smaller, locally-owned grocers and drive them out of business, then threaten to pull the plug if the surrounding community does not turn out to be sufficiently compliant to the corporation’s profit-driven greed, is indeed, as Ward 8 Councilmember Sandra Allen observed in a rare moment of insight, “…an unfortunate aspect of capitalism.”

However, such hand-wringing on the part of community leaders does not address the underlying problem which Ms. Allen, no doubt inadvertently but nonetheless correctly, identified in her statement. The fact is that Safeway operates first and foremost to make a profit. Thus. it’s no surprise that it should seek to close stores which are unprofitable. Likewise, it’s no surprise that these stores should be located in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. It’s also no surprise that Safeway should desire to abandon the more expensive scenario of operating many smaller neighborhood stores, and instead pursue the modern paradigm of “bigger is better”—and cheaper—by operating just a few large hubs of retail activity and forcing customers to travel longer distances to do their shopping. And finally, it should be no surprise that Safeway undertook this action with little regard for its impact on the surrounding community, particularly the elderly, physically disabled, and others who may have difficulty travelling longer distances to obtain their groceries.

A Company Town

In many respects, the District of Columbia has become a company town, harboring an unhealthy dependency on large corporations, usually based elsewhere, who have invaded the city and driven out all major competition, leaving residents with no choice but to patronize their stores. Like the mining towns of pre-union days, in which all supplies and groceries had to be purchased from a “company store” that could determine prices and availability of goods according to its own whims, D.C. residents are indentured to such modern company stores as Safeway, Giant, and CVS which are slowly squeezing out smaller, locally-owned businesses. Not only does this set up the community for “Safeway withdrawal” when a once-reliable grocery supplier pulls out, but it maintains a steady drain of dollars from the community to Safeway’s California home-base as long as the store is in operation.

An example of the wrong way to promote more community ownership and control of the grocery supply is seen in the history of the Good Hope Marketplace, a massive shopping center built two years ago at the intersection of Good Hope Road, Alabama Avenue, and Naylor Road, SE. The center boasts the second largest Safeway store in D.C., as well as other retail outlets, and was financed by a $1 million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and an $11.5 million loan from the District and federal governments. Safeway shut down an older store that it operated at the site, built a new and larger store, then sold the site to the Anacostia Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) for $13.3 million. Safeway now leases the site from AEDC.

So what did the community get from this project funded largely with public dollars? A large shopping center housing many retail outlets for non-local businesses, including the following: Pizza Hut (based in Dallas, TX), Athletes Foot (based in Dayton, OH), Payless Shoe Source (based in Philadelphia, PA), and Radio Shack (based in Fort Worth, TX). In addition, the center’s anchor store, Safeway (based in Pleasanton, CA), is now where customers from the recently closed Milwaukee Place Safeway (located two miles away) are being directed to go. The inconvenience to and disregard for the community that goes along with such projects is bad enough; that much of the money spent by residents at these stores ends up going outside of the community, never to return, is an added insult.

Going Local

There are several ways to deal with this situation. One response, advocated in the pages of the Washington Business Journal, would be “offering grocery stores some relief from District taxes and other incentives, such as tax-increment financing” (“Carrots, Not Sticks, Will Keep Grocers,” Washington Business Journal, Oct. 5, 1998). This solution does nothing to promote community control of business, and instead further removes control while providing publicly funded handouts to private corporate interests.

Another solution is to promote cooperative businesses, in which the community owns and operates the business. Examples of successful co-ops abound throughout the country and within the Washington metropolitan region. Essentially, members of co-ops pay a fee and invest in shares to provide operating capital. A board is elected which makes all decisions, with member input, on purchasing, sales, and merchandise selection.

Members pledge to commit a portion of their time to help in the maintenance of the store. The store operates for the benefit of its members—those in the community - rather than for the financial interests of some distant corporate entity. Because co-op members have come together for a common purpose—providing a reliable grocery source to the community—supplies can often be purchased in bulk for wholesale prices and offered affordably to customers.

Such a solution may be ideal for many of D.C.’s neighborhoods. Abandoned Safeway stores could be converted to co-ops (although Safeway reportedly does not want these stores to be reopened as competing grocery stores, for obvious reasons). The Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, the supposed basis of local grassroots democracy of any sort in the District, should be coming together to take the lead on this. Only by taking this first step can further domination of D.C.’s neighborhoods by the “company store” be stopped. Let’s turn this “company town” into a “people’s town”!

Steve Donkin is a member of the Green Party of D.C. He can be reached at (202) 986-9438.

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