First the dominant bank in Indianapolis abandons branches that have occupied Black neighborhoods for decades. Now a bigger shock, the grocery stores that served those neighborhoods for nearly 60 years are leaving.
The sudden closing last Thursday of Double 8 Foods, formerly 7-11, after 58 years serving Indianapolis, especially our African-American community, is devastating. Even those who shunned the stores were saddened by the news.
Worse, the Ballard Administration’s incoherent and feeble response to the closings demonstrates their bankrupt neighborhood policies.
First, some words about those four closed stores.
A Jewish Holocaust survivor from Hungary, Zoltan Weisz, fled Communist Hungary in 1951, immigrated to America, came with his family to Indianapolis and opened 7-11 in neighborhoods abandoned by the major chains as they fled the growing Black community in northern Center Township.
Weisz catered to our community not just with the basics, but with specialty foods loved and appreciated by Blacks.
Weisz’s stores were a family business and that included how he treated his employees. As one who fled oppression, Weisz understood the importance of equality and fairness.
Two years after opening the stores, he broke a significant color barrier, hiring Clarence Ridley as manager of the 29th and Northwestern (now MLK) store; the first African-American grocery store manager in Indianapolis history.
In the late 1990s, Weisz sold the stores to a relative, Isaiah Kuperstein, who tried to maintain the family-owned atmosphere and style.
But the economy was changing. The grocery business in Indianapolis had become hyper competitive. Unlike other businesses where profit margins are 10, 20, 30 percent or more, in the grocery business profits are literally a penny or two on the dollar – 1 to 2 percent.
Double 8’s sudden closing has created a Sahara-sized food desert – a huge area of some 44,170 people, 77 percent African-American, with no full service grocery alternative.
Put another way, three Black-majority zip codes – 46205, 46208 and 46218 – are now each served by one full-service grocery store. Fewest of any Indy zip code.
The aggregate income of those living in the neighborhoods around the closed stores was $862.5 million according to the 2013 Census American Community Survey. For African-Americans in the area, combined aggregate income was $496.6 million.
Assuming folks spend 10 percent of their income in grocery stores, Blacks in the food desert of Indianapolis will spend $49.7 million in grocery stores.
Double 8 got a bit of those dollars. A newer, fresher store catering to the food needs of the area could do more business than Double 8.
I don’t understand why city government, the Indy Chamber, neighborhood activists and community development corporations don’t focus on neighborhood aggregate income and buying power in pitching the economic value of inner-city neighborhoods.
But in this crisis, Black leadership moved swiftly.
At a Saturday morning meeting Black Councilpersons and legislators were joined by ministers and other leaders to discuss short term and long term action steps.
Area churches, along with firefighters have organized a van shuttle from the 29th & MLK and 39th & Illinois locations to take seniors and others to alternate grocery stores.
I applaud the actions of Black leadership in that area. I hear folks in Mapleton-Fall Creek are considering similar actions.
I can’t say that about the city, though.
The mayor called a meeting last Friday of stakeholders and community organizations on the crisis, but excluded elected officials and key community leaders from the affected neighborhoods. Media wasn’t informed until hours later.
Oddly, the Mayor’s Office asked a health-oriented coalition designed to handle health-related emergencies to coordinate response in this crisis.
But Monday on our WTLC-AM (1310) “Afternoons with Amos” program, Mayor Greg Ballard’s Press Secretary Brad Jacklin flatly stated the Double 8 closings weren’t “a crisis.”
If that’s the mindset of the mayor and his minions, they are living in Zombieland!
The gaping food desert in northern Center Township IS a crisis that demands mayoral leadership!
But the Ballard Administration has shown time and again they don’t give a damn about economic development in Black-majority neighborhoods.
On the same show, top mayoral aide Douglas Hairston tried to defend the mayor’s record of utilizing minority-owned businesses, but that doesn’t explain why many Black-majority neighborhoods have deteriorated under Ballard’s reign.
The neighborhoods served by Double 8 have tried to get an alternative grocery service for years. But the mayor and his selfish economic development minions never cared about attracting grocery alternatives for African-American neighborhoods.
They slavishly courted Whole Foods, first for Broad Ripple, then for downtown.
The lust for more downtown grocery stores means they’ll soon have three, while many food desert areas have none.
Neighborhood gardens, food pantries, and monthly foodstuff handouts are no solution to this crisis! Only a quality, full-service store will do. Not a huge megastore, but a modest sized store with the basics: meats, good greens, will do. A store that cares about its customers and puts service first will work in those neighborhoods.
See ‘ya next week!
You can email comment to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
