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CaroKannyeWest t1_j64d5hc wrote

It's a great place for sure. A daily stop for me.

Most importantly it's located in a food desert. It's one of the few places to get fresh food in the west end.

All that said, I'm torn on donating. The place was run poorly imo for many years. Board positions, volunteer positions etc were filled w friends of management/owners where more qualified people were overlooked because they didn't "know someone".

The place is really needed, I just wish they kept John Santos around and let him run it the way it should have been.

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j64ewqr wrote

>Most importantly it's located in a food desert. It's one of the few places to get fresh food in the west end.

If anything, this should be the non-starter for donating. When they're in a situation where they shouldn't really have any way to fail? Crowdfunding isn't going to save them. The best case scenario is you end up like the suckers who gave $40,000 to Bucktown and they couldn't last 6 months after.

At a certain point, an operation needs to sink or swim and Urban Greens just announced they don't know how to swim

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CaroKannyeWest t1_j64f755 wrote

Harsh but fair. And you're right. I was half worried I'd be out on an island with my stance here.

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j64nnx7 wrote

The line about needing "an infusion of cash to get to a place of greater stability" is what made me get that way.

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JasonDJ t1_j64dvj5 wrote

They dug their own grave. If a grocery store can't survive in a food desert, they have no business keeping their doors open.

I went several times when they first opened and they were reasonable, fresh, and clean. I've heard that's changed quite a bit over the past year or so.

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Kelruss t1_j64pcpw wrote

“Food desert” doesn’t mean “prime location for a grocery store” — often these places are food deserts exactly because they’re tough locations. For instance, dollar stores specifically target these locations and will work to drive out traditional grocery stores by selling cheap non-perishables. In addition, you often have corner stores selling produce and meat directly in neighborhoods (there are multiple on Cranston St., one on Messer, and another on Westminster). With Urban Greens, they’re competing with those corner stores plus at least one dollar store, and a butcher. Meanwhile, I would guess the local market that will basically only shop at a traditional grocery store is fairly small, likely already had an alternative (or might be doing delivery), and is easily poachable by, say, Trader Joe’s.

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silvio_burlesqueconi t1_j653hjg wrote

Yeah. I've lived in the neighborhood for well over decade and never thought of it as a food desert—what with Joe's Meat Market, Rudy, Friendship Market, PPW, Price Rite, etc.

I'll pop by Urban Greens once or twice a month for specialty stuff but only did my regular grocery shopping there when Friendship Market and Rudy's were closed for a few months at the start of the pandemic.

They've always been a bit pricy and felt like more a niche place for the Whole Foods crowd than a neighborhood grocery store. I'm frankly surprised they've lasted this long having seen both Fertile Underground and Hope & Thyme come and go.

What's that Marge Simpson line? "We can't afford to shop at any store that has a philosophy."

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