I was following up on a diary posted yesterday about McDonalds and fast food being poisonous to families and how this stuff should be avoided at all costs, and while this particular story was short, the comments under it hit a whole number of nerves among daily readers of this site, particularly about the issues of convenience shopping, food delivery services, the struggle for working people to feed their families, inflation, nutrition, food deserts, SNAP benefits, ultra-processed food, etc., nearly of which could be extensively talked about on their own individual merits. I’m going to limit my discussion to the availability of food, i.e., food deserts and my experiences with that.
I currently live in Rockford, Illinois, and it does feature a number of large supermarkets (Schnucks, Valli Produce) as well as three Walmart superstores and two Meijer superstores, most of which have a deli and a large section of hot prepared foods, and four Aldi stores. So what’s wrong with that? Well, nearly all of those stores are located on the east side of town, usually three to five miles from the river which bisects my city and are closer to the I-90 tollway which represents the farthest city limits. I live on the east side about a mile away from the river, and while I am fortunate enough to be able to work remotely and have my groceries delivered when I choose to do so, not everyone has that same luxury, particularly those on the west side of the river.
On the northwest side of town there is a Walmart superstore with a full supermarket and a brand new Aldi store across the street, but those are on the outskirts of the city. The new Aldi store replaced an older Aldi store that was more centrally located on the west side of town. In addition, thee were two Schuncks supermarkets which closed over the past decade due to underperformance, leaving just the Walmart, Aldi, and a variety of corner and ethnic stores and dollar stores for people to get groceries.
Of course the biggest issue with regard to shopping for groceries is actually trying to get to the store, and the Walmart and Aldi are on the outskirts of town on the west side, meaning that most people have to drive long distances to shop. There is a city bus which goes to the Walmart, but it’s a huge pain to lug groceries around on the bus, not to mention having to wait 45 minutes each way. Likewise, some shoppers can’t use services like Uber Eats or Doordash to have groceries delivered because they receive SNAP benefits which are not covered by those delivery services. If they can’t reach those stores, then they either have to drive across the river to access the larger number of grocery stores on the east side of town or go to the local mom and pop corner stores or dollar stores, most of which do not carry fresh meat or produce and usually carry highly processed meats or junk food.
This is my experience, and I live in a relatively large city. What about those people who live in the ghetto where they are more likely to find a huge number of fast food places, liquor stores, or bodegas before they find a full-service supermarket? Or those rural areas where the nearest Walmart is 20 to 50 miles away, and the nearest source of groceries is a gas station convenience store or Dollar Store? America has been described as the land of milk and honey, but people shouldn’t have to travel so far and long just to get it.