Grocery stores in Greater Providence

[TheAnk]

1. tons of esp speaking folks @ Shaws.. Whoever said that at the meeting may have never stepped inside the store

2. tons of "ethnic food".. I live near Stop & Shop now, and would drive to Shaw's for their variety.. And their 10 for $10 aisle.. (you can take the ank out of the ghetto, but not the ghetto out of the ank).. I loved that shaws.. It was perfect.. The deli was great, produce good.. Good variety.. bakery kind of sucked though.. It was always busy.. Granted it was probably mostly food stamps and WIC, but still.. It was busier than Stop & Shop except for when normal banks were closed and that Citz Bank was the only thing open..

3. I think the income stuff from 2000 census is very dated now.. Its 7 years old, and there is a very different dynamic in The O as there was in 2000.. So calling it the poorest section is misleading.. I'm not saying it is middle class, it isn't.. But there are poorer sections of PVD, for sure.. Its also like it or not, the economic hub SEVEN PVD neighborhoods.. So by saying that Shaws failed because of low income in O'ville is just incorrect.. The econ hub includes price rite.. This is a better reason.. I truly believe that store was profitable.. I feel it was a victim of Shaws anti-urban move, more global than Eagle Square central..

4. You could not pay me to go to Price Rite on Manton.. It may be shang-RI-la inside for all I know, but I see all I need to know about that place by the parking lot.. trash everywhere, tumbleweeds, barrels on fire with fingerless-gloved people warming themselves, etc.. Naked babies with gloc-9s, you know the drill..

5. the term non-white is the most offensive term ever..

[Cotuit]

I truly believe that store was profitable.. I feel it was a victim of Shaws anti-urban move, more global than Eagle Square central..

[ruchele]

Seriously, that Shaw's had a frankly ENORMOUS selection of Latino-focussed foods. Also, LOTS of people who spoke Spanish. Whoever said otherwise was just making stuff up to bolster their argument.

The idea that the only financial demographic that mattered was Olneyville is just silly- it was the closest grocery store to all of Federal Hill and the West End. Of course it was very profitable- just, obviously, not AS profitable as Shaw's wanted.

I'd like to add a reminder of something that seems to have totally slipped folks' minds: Urban Greens is still planning to develop a natural foods co-op on the West Side within the next year. This will provide plenty of opportunity for your organic produce and artesianal goat cheese fix. I don't imagine it will be fancy, for those of you who require WF-style opulence, but it will fill a big gap for us crunchy hippies and others into local food. The question will remain of where folks can go on this end of the city for Wheaties, Oreos and other more mundane staples.

[Cotuit]

Anyone else remember Heartland Food Warehouse? There was one in Hyannis and from what I understand one in Seekonk or someplace over there (maybe more). It was basically, well, a warehouse full of food. It was set up like a grocery store, but very bare bones, concrete floors, used shelving, handmade signage... It had national brands and generics. It was probably a quarter the size of Shaw's. Something like that is what we need on the West Side, no frills, but something that carries all the staples most of us need.

I also used to shop at a great Co-op in Allston. Carried a lot of earthy crunchy type of stuff, it was good for fresh food and bulk items.

I'll certainly support Urban Greens when they get off the ground, it is still an inconvenient location for me (what without a car and no crosstown bus service). Hopefully they'll do well and can develop further into a Co-op type deal with expanded offerings. Between that, the Mini Mart, the Walgreens coming to 333, and the Italian places on Atwells, I can probably get by pretty well without Shaw's.

There was a wonderful place a block from my house in Astoria that was basically a produce market, but it had several aisles of national brand food (chips, ice cream, cereals, and such) as well as a meat counter and a seafood counter. I miss it dearly. If Urban Greens could grow into something like that, I'd be thrilled.

[runawayjim]

i'm actually looking forward to walgreen's. they carry my breakfast cereals, and probably for lower prices than shaws. i can get my milk at the mini-mart for cheaper than any grocery store ($3.50 for a gallon is a pretty good deal). the only stuff i would have to go to stop and shop for are meats and the deli (it's annoying that the parkade stop and shop doesn't have boar's head, but the one on branch ave does and the shaws in eagle square had dietz and watson... i like the high end deli meats when they're on sale).

i'll have to spend some time in the italian shops and see what their prices and hours are like. i can probably get my deli meats there (though i'm not sure they'd carry swiss or meunster cheese).

[Frankie811]

Anyone else remember Heartland Food Warehouse? There was one in Hyannis and from what I understand one in Seekonk or someplace over there (maybe more). It was basically, well, a warehouse full of food.

[matt]

Anyone else remember Heartland Food Warehouse?

[Liamlunchtray]

Yes, I do remember it and yes, it was in Seekonk, over near the old Lechmere's I if recall correctly. That was my first experience with that type of store. Just mountains of food. Great ribs, biggest and best ever.

[BigUglyCat]

Yes, I do remember it and yes, it was in Seekonk, over near the old Lechmere's I if recall correctly. That was my first experience with that type of store. Just mountains of food. Great ribs, biggest and best ever.

[mandrake258]

4. You could not pay me to go to Price Rite on Manton.. It may be shang-RI-la inside for all I know, but I see all I need to know about that place by the parking lot.. trash everywhere, tumbleweeds, barrels on fire with fingerless-gloved people warming themselves, etc.. Naked babies with gloc-9s, you know the drill..

5. the term non-white is the most offensive term ever..

[Garris]

I have no doubt that store was making money. The term I've been hearing is "underperforming."

[runawayjim]

Especially since my unstanding is that shutting operations down itself is actually quite expensive, due to legal costs, severences, etc...

- Garris

[chemgeek]

i'll have to spend some time in the italian shops and see what their prices and hours are like. i can probably get my deli meats there (though i'm not sure they'd carry swiss or meunster cheese).

[basachs]

Can someone in business explain this to me? I've heard this described a lot in articles about many business issues. In the case of the Wayland Square's WFs, when it was to be closed after the Cranston WF opens (supposedly not happening now, but we'll see what happens after that Cranston store actually opens...), the reason was that, while it was profitable, it didn't fit into their "long term strategy."

I don't get it. As long as you are making money after all of your resources and costs are accounted for, what are the business reasons for cutting "underperforming" outlets? Especially since my unstanding is that shutting operations down itself is actually quite expensive, due to legal costs, severences, etc...

- Garris

[misterchlo]

Not to incite those who would like to tell Mr. Trader Joe to go pound dirt, but this brings us back to that topic. I have heard time and time again that Whole Foods plans to keep that Wayland Square store if only to keep Trader Joe's out of the Providence market. They are salivating for that spot..

[brick]

Not to incite those who would like to tell Mr. Trader Joe to go pound dirt, but this brings us back to that topic. I have heard time and time again that Whole Foods plans to keep that Wayland Square store if only to keep Trader Joe's out of the Providence market. They are salivating for that spot..

[runawayjim]

It can be a somewhat lengthy topic, but I will keep it short. Underperformance affects your long term. Companies set targets for themselves and underperforming stores, even if profitable, endanger meeting that target. So even if you are technically making money on something, you are not making enough to meet your target. This could be compounded with a forecasted increase in cost at a particular location, further narrowing the profit margin. Eventually, the formula works out where it makes more sense to shutter a store.

Now, these formula's are manipulated a lot by companies and external forces (such as a new parent company) are almost always involved.

Finally, while there is certainly a cost of shutting down a store a lot of that stuff can be written off, making it even more attractive.

[basachs]

while this might be the case, they are still making money and not spending money. it's really to keep stockholders happy more than anything else. a bunch of MBA's sitting in a room arbitrarily deciding to close a store to keep the stockholders happy. this is when being a publicly traded company is an issue.

according to what we heard at the meeting last week, the store was not in danger of being closed until shaws was sold to supervalue.

[eltron]

Garris asked for the business way of explaining things, and that what I gave him. In publicly traded business, everything is to keep stockholders happy.

[Cotuit]

Which is why we should not be looking towards national conglomerates like Shaw's and Trader Joe's to fill our needs. The city needs to get out and hustle some smaller chains and independents and sell them on the Providence market. We have lots of people living here, there's money to be made, just not the money that soulless corporations are looking for. A smaller retailer that is looking to make itself part of the community and values the community on par with the bottom line is what we need.

[basachs]

Which is why we should not be looking towards national conglomerates like Shaw's and Trader Joe's to fill our needs. The city needs to get out and hustle some smaller chains and independents and sell them on the Providence market. We have lots of people living here, there's money to be made, just not the money that soulless corporations are looking for. A smaller retailer that is looking to make itself part of the community and values the community on par with the bottom line is what we need.

[runawayjim]

IGA is a good brand that promotes what Cotuit is talking about. Dave's is part of the IGA.

Do we have any idea if places like Dave's, Eastside, or Roche Bros have even been approached to come/expand in Providence?

[Cotuit]

Do we have any idea if places like Dave's, Eastside, or Roche Bros have even been approached to come/expand in Providence?

[Recchia]

Does Providence have any kind of Improvement Corporation, Improvement District or anything? When I was in Albany I interned at the Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corporation and they actively went after businesses trying to get them to locate in Schenectady, including Trader Joes and Whole Foods. Schenectady is like the upstate New York equivalent of Pawtucket, maybe worse. Maybe the Chamber of Commerce does this sort of thing?

[urbie]

Does the city even have a Department that handles retail relations? Boston has an ambassador that travels the country going to corporate HQs and telling them why they should locate in places like Dorchester and Roxbury and Mattapan.