apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Home Depot, Best Buy, Trader Joes, Whole Foods.

These places have been and are changing America.

I think there are positives and negatives. On the plus side, they are getting people more interested in home projects, cooking, eating better.

Not to be a pessimist but it's much easier to list all the negatives.

As one person said on another thread, something to the effect of "the mallification of Manhattan." Insert Chicago as well.

Nobody likes to see the little guy close his doors. But we've created a multi-headed dragon who only grows stronger with time as it devours small businesses.

Big business makes many people feel comfortable.

I would like to study these words more carefully as they relate to this subject: America, democracy, idealism, capitalism, corporatism, globalisation, credit.

I live in Crown Heights, which is pretty lacking in good grocery stores. Veggies are old, milk is overpriced. One time I went in and a whole bank of shelves had collapsed. Needless to say I avoid my local grocery store -Key Food- as much as I can.

I realize that I am lucky to have the time and energy to leave the neighborhood for food: I end up walking a mile with a cart to the Park Slope Food Coop once a week or in a pinch I go to the Greenmarket at Grand Army Plaza. If I didn't do those, I'd probably start ordering from Fresh Direct, rather than rely on my local Key Food. Of course, this is a shame for the Key Food, but since I am probably in the minority I doubt that my actions have a huge impact on their sales. In a place like Park Slope, where more people seek "gourmet" food and have cars to drive to Whole Foods or Fairway, it'd likely put a place like D'Ag out of business, which it seems to have. And for those without cars or computers (to order from FD), that's a huge shame.

I would guess Gristedes and the like are closing locations that are already over-served in wealthy parts of Manhattan. Now that Fresh Direct is out there and Whole Foods delivers all over the city (and wealthy people can afford a car service back from Fairway and Trader Joe's), the way the upper and upper middle classes get food has changed. Most of the D'ags and Food Emporiums in Manhattan haven't kept up with the trends, catering to an older clientele that isn't interested in ordering groceries online or shlepping in a taxi from the Whole Foods at Columbus Circle.

The neighborhoods where people have problems with grocery access are not having these issues. Sorry I'm not all boo hoo about it, but money buys a lot, but it doesn't buy having your cake and eating it, too. You can't shop exclusively at Whole Foods and then bitch when that shuts down the Gristedes down the block, making hit harder to run out for a quart of milk.

D'Ag and Gristedes are union shops-- I'm sorry to see them go mainly because relatively good unskilled jobs are going with them. On the other hand, they smack of the 70s and I can't remember the last time I went into one. When I was a kid, Gristedes was the regular grocery store, and D'ag was considered, by us, kinda fancy.

Love that D'Agostino Love that D'Ag D'Ag D'Ag... anyone else remember that ad? Or the Shoprite Can Can?

yeah, showing my age. But these old NY grocery stores were the source, during the pre-Martha days, of london broil with A1 steak sauce, Potato Buds, and iceberg lettuce with bottled italian dressing. It was a simpler time.

And I couldn't eat that crap now for love nor money.

I've been checking this out while doing my 8 week cure and finally registered to comment on this topic.

When I lived in NYC, both of those grocery stores in my neighborhood (UES in the Sixties) smelled like the food was going bad, whether it was the meat, milk or the produce.

When I first moved there, I was so appalled by the lack of cleanliness, lack of selection, etc., I lost about 8 lbs, between walking to get food from the Union Square Green market, trying to find Laura Scudders P-Nut Butter, not getting grossed out by the amount of fat floating on the top of pizza (and using napkins to blot it off) and all the excess salt.

I would "import" the unsalted Laura Scudders P-Nut Butter from CA when I would go home to mom and dad's--I even called the mfgr and they said they'd "test marketed it on the East Coast and it went over like a lead balloon."

I'm glad the grocery stores got better over the 9 years I lived there, but I am VERY glad to be back in the greater LA area....

most people in the rest of the country have to do *some* work to get to a grocery store - get on a bus, call a cab, drive, etc. if some of the horrid "grocery" stores in new york are shutting down, while better options are expanding (trader joes and fairway esp) - I don't think that's unfortunate.

yes, there are people who will have to work harder to get groceries. but that's true in so much of the country/world, why shouldn't it be true here? who wants the false convenience of a store down the block if it's a nasty gristedes with clerks who always seem angry at you?