Jesse Jackson promotes chain grocery stores in Detroit.

[erikd]

"Another area Jackson wants to address right away is combating the city's so-called food desert, a term used to describe pockets or neighborhoods in Detroit where fresh foods are not available.
"There is not a national or regional chain food store in Detroit," Jackson said. "Detroiters spend $2 billion on food and retail outside of the city."
Jackson said he is talking to owners of some chain stores about investing in the city.


Read more: Rev. Jesse Jackson: The fight begins in Detroit | freep.com | Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/article/20100930/NEWS02/9300409/1001/NEWS/Rev.-Jesse-Jackson-The-fight-begins-in-Detroit#ixzz11HNgoLjk"

[gdogslim]

Well.. Jesse, as well as any other entrepreneur or investor[[s) are free to open a grocery store any where they choose to if they think it is viable.
By all means Jesse, raise the capital and GO FOR IT!
I applaud Jesse putting his words where his mouth is and investing part of his $400,000+ income in Detroit.

[Zacha341]

Well stated!

Well.. Jesse, as well as any other entrepreneur or investor[[s) are free to open a grocery store any where they choose to if they think it is viable.
By all means Jesse, raise the capital and GO FOR IT!
I applaud Jesse putting his words where his mouth is and investing part of his $400,000+ income in Detroit.

[Hermod]

Well.. Jesse, as well as any other entrepreneur or investor[[s) are free to open a grocery store any where they choose to if they think it is viable.
By all means Jesse, raise the capital and GO FOR IT!
I applaud Jesse putting his words where his mouth is and investing part of his $400,000+ income in Detroit.

Some years back, there was talk of Jesse running for mayor of Washington DC. Former mayor Marion Barry, when questioned about the possibility of Jackson being mayor of the city, uttered the classic quote, "Jesse doesn't want to run anything but his mouth."

[Ravine]

Some years back, there was talk of Jesse running for mayor of Washington DC. Former mayor Marion Barry, when questioned about the possibility of Jackson being mayor of the city, uttered the classic quote, "Jesse doesn't want to run anything but his mouth."

Bravo. How true.

And thumbs-up to anyone who suggests that Jackson, having raised the subject up to public review, should show his sincerity & commitment by doing something other than yap his trap about it.

[milesdriven]

The problem with chain stores is that they like to preserve their brand identity by keeping things uniform throughout all stores. When in Detroit, you have to lock up many items, such as baby formula, OTC medications, and anything else that is easy to steal. If the extra expenses [[security, insanely high insurance costs, high property taxes, and frivolous lawsuits) weren't a hurdle to turning a profit, there would probably be some Kroger stores in Detroit. It didn't work out too well at 7 Mile and Gratiot, if I remember.

[DetroitPole]

In addition to putting his money where is mouth is or just plain going the fuck away, can this guy get out of the early 1980's?

He's talking about opening plants and chain grocery stores. Okay, how about a Renaissance Center, genius? It would turn this city around! Then he goes and slams urban farming.

Meanwhile, back in Detroit, we're starting to grow our own food on a larger scale, and small successful markets are opening. Places like Tech Town and industries like health care are provided small job growth, not automotive assembly plants.

Did this guy get the memo that it's the 21st century and we have to come up with new ideas for a new reality?

No, let's just open all the shuttered plants and bring in chain grocery stores. Why don't we just build a time machine while we're at it? By the way, we had all that stuff while the city was still in horrible shape. We need new ideas, not the same old ones that haven't been working.

What a vapid moron, a dinosaur. Last I checked, economics drove job growth, not talking. What is he aiming on achieving? Someone agreeing to invest just so he'll go away?

[DC48080]

As with most of his mumbling mumbo jumbo comments, old Jesse is wrong on this issue. There are national and regional chain grocery stores in the city. There is at least one Aldi store in Detroit, there are several Spartan stores as well. While there may not be enough of these to serve the populace of Detroit, Jesse conveniently forgets the reasons why there aren't more large grocery stores. Reasons such as exorbitantly high crime and insurance rates, and the simple fact that the city of Detroit, especially many of the neighborhoods, is an extremely inhospitable place in which to conduct retail business.

Ole Jesse should stick to what he does best i.e. shaking down large companies for dollars to settle trumped up racial issues.

Does anybody in the Detroit area really give a damn about anything this so called "Reverend" has to say?

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clip...head-apologize

[oldredfordette]

You guys all care. One mention of Jesse and you all go foaming at the mouth. Very entertaining.

Here's one for you:

AL SHARPTON.

[Ravine]

You guys all care. One mention of Jesse and you all go foaming at the mouth. Very entertaining.

Here's one for you:

AL SHARPTON.

Oh, I see.
You, of all people, find that to be entertaining.

[DC48080]

You guys all care. One mention of Jesse and you all go foaming at the mouth. Very entertaining.

Perhaps we should pin a bunch of kooky buttons to our clothes and stand in front of Jesse's house and flip it off like you did in front of the White House. That must have been incredibly entertaining.

[DetroitPole]

You guys all care. One mention of Jesse and you all go foaming at the mouth. Very entertaining.

Here's one for you:

AL SHARPTON.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a dyed-in-the wool liberal. I consider myself a socialist - or, at least, I think socialism is a good word, not a bad one.

We have to be willing to criticize those in our own camp [[or claim to be) or we are no better than the conservatives who were Bush-enablers[[now see Tea Partiers) and stood by the cowboy president while he destroyed this country. I think it is clear Jesse Jackson is a charleton and a hack, and even if he isn't his ideas are unoriginal and passe.

Other developed countries in the world still have neighborhood markets that are not liquor stores. They have big box stores too. They, apparently, spend their wealth [[which is far less than ours) more sensibly. We, in the US, on the otherhand, would rather drive to Wal-Mart and load up on 2 months worth of everything from Capri-Sun to snow tires and then unload it in the cul-de-sac, as opposed to walking to the corner market to buy a day or two's worth of fresh food. We made our nest. It is capitalism at work - we demanded and the market supplied it.

[ragnarok1981]

Jesse Jackson and the rest of the loud mouth frauds like him do nothing but talk and say that they are doing it for the good of the black community. Only once in a blue moon does he actually stick around in an area to help solve a problem instead of just flying in and causing an uproar and making people all mad and then he leaves again. He needs to get a reality check and actually take a look around Detroit to see why grocery stores dont work here. First problem is that a lot of people find it easier to just go to a McD's or some other fast food place and just eat there rather than buying food and cooking it themselves. The markets that are in the city are for the most part disgusting. They are often dirty and you can see the piled up slimy dust and the base of shelves and everything just sort of feels dirty. If those stores have produce it is either very very basic stuff and it is probably rotten. The meat is usually close to D grade or and I am sorry for saying this but it is what appeals to people in the black community and not so much to the rest of the area. What I mean by that is that Detroit is the only place where when I go into a market I see chitlens by the bucket, pig feet, and other animal parts that most of us would not go near if we were paid to. Now I know that the stores are obviously catering to their shoppers and there is plenty of socio-economic reasons for why people eat those things, but if we want more people moving into the city then we need to have markets that go beyond that old model. It is hard to go to a store and tell them that they need to change what they are selling to be more nutritious and less of a hazard to a persons health because they have no economic insentive to do so.
Idealy what needs to happen is to have a series of urban farms with greenhouses so that they can grow year round spread out around the city. These farms in turn would have the kind of produce that people should be eating and they can set up small farm markets to provide the people in those areas with the food they need. If instead we continue down the current path then the people in Detroit are going to either have to go out to the burbs or eastern market on the weekend or they will continue to eat the same old crap and continue to have diabetes, cancer, and all sorts of other health conditions that are a result of eating such horrible food.

[oldredfordette]

You're obsessed with that picture. It's complimentary/disturbing - maybe you should get some real friends.

[DC48080]

You're obsessed with that picture. It's complimentary/disturbing - maybe you should get some real friends.

I'm not the least bit obsessed with it at all. I find it comical and rather pathetic at the same time.

That picture did clarify one thing to me though; from reading your posts I had always pictured you to be an idealistic young college student say about 19 or 20 years old. One who really hadn't experienced much of the real world yet. Then I saw your picture and was shocked to see that you're a grown woman who appears to be in her mid fifties. I would have thought such a woman would have more couth than to commit such a vulgar and immature act.

[jcole]

Just a clarification: Other than these stores [[D&W Fresh Markets, Family Fare Supermarkets, Felpausch Food Centers, Glen’s Markets and VG's Food and Pharmacy)Spartan is not a chain of grocery stores. Spartan stores are independently owned stores that use Spartan as a distributor. So-called Spartan stores can be as small as the corner party store or as large as Imperial Mkt on 8 Mile.

[gazhekwe]

Way back in the day, before there were a lot of big chain grocers, small neighborhood grocers ruled. If I am remembering right, the chains coming in back then were Wrigley's, A&P and I forget the other one. They went into the neighborhood slots, like Plymouth east of Southfield, Grand River and Fenkell, Schaefer and McNichols that I can remember. Of course, back then, there were still one car families with a stay at home mom, who walked to the grocery store with her little cart. Stll, the bigger supermarkets eventually ran the small stores out of business. Maybe now it is time for the smaller local grocer to come in and stake out their neighborhood. Hopefully they can keep down the shrinkage rate so they can afford to stay in business.

[rhythmc]

I would love to see the city get a mix of locally owned as well as national chain grocers. I can remember as a child having both Kroger's and Farmer Jack's in the city. I can't imagine how all city residents can be made to go without these businesses due to the actions of the few.

Jesse's right about the need.

[Hermod]

I would love to see the city get a mix of locally owned as well as national chain grocers. I can remember as a child having both Kroger's and Farmer Jack's in the city. I can't imagine how all city residents can be made to go without these businesses due to the actions of the few.

Jesse's right about the need.

The city had quite a mix of Krogers, A&P, Farmer Jack, Wrigleys, Big Bear, and many smaller independents.

Gee, Reverend Jackson, what do you suppose happened to them? Were they vaporized by aliens?

[oldredfordette]

You were wrong again, DC4. Do you ever get tired of being wrong? It must be exhausting.

[DC48080]

What? About what you did being vulgar and immature? No, I was spot on in my assessment.

[oldredfordette]

You poor man. Turn off your computer and go outside, the sun is shining.

[DC48080]

You poor man. Turn off your computer and go outside, the sun is shining.

The sun is shining? Not anywhere in Metro Detroit is isn't right now. It is overcast and drizzling. Perhaps in whatever alternate world you live in it is sunny out but not here at this time.

You are hilarious. And you're really really special too. Keep on doing what you do.

As for me, I'm out of here for now. I have some thing to get done.

[oldredfordette]

The sun is shining in Royal Oak, Michigan. Where ever you are, it must be gray and chilly. Bye bye.

[Pam]

I'm not the least bit obsessed with it at all.

I think you are up to four or five mentions of it by now. How many more do you need to qualify as obsessed?