Making It in the Inner City

Big, modern supermarkets are scarce in South-Central Los Angeles. Most major grocery chains have written off a large territory of nearly 50 square miles between the Santa Monica and Artesia freeways from Crenshaw to Alameda boulevards, according to Times staff writer Jube Shiver. As the largest grocery chains--with the lonely exception of Boys Market--abandon the area, the poorest people end up paying the highest prices for food.

It is as difficult to place blame as it is to find answers to the problem that do not themselves suggest new questions.

The grocers say that supermarkets are not charities and that grocery stores are money-making businesses with thin profit margins. In high-crime areas, profits are greatly reduced by security problems and high insurance rates; shoppers and employees face constant danger. In older urban areas, profits are further reduced by limited floor and shelf space in the older, outmoded, inefficient and small stores.

The absence of large, competitive supermarkets is common in the nation’s inner-city neighborhoods, according to a report, “Obtaining Food: Shopping Constraints on the Poor,” prepared two years ago for a House select committee on hunger. The government can’t force stores into every neighborhood, but local leaders can coax them. Zoning and tax incentives are under consideration by the city council in Washington. Local incentives are a logical approach, but it will take more than tax breaks to make shoppers and employees feel safe in high-crime areas.

To decrease crime, Boys Market is using fences and guards at two fairly new high-security supermarkets in South-Central Los Angeles. The stores, which opened at Vermont and Slauson in 1981 and in Watts in 1985, have proved that the inner city can be profitable. But not every market chain will go to that trouble, and, without competition, there is no way to ensure moderate prices.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter is discussing the problem with a number of supermarket representatives. More council members must involve themselves, as must the mayor and community leaders.

In any city or neighborhood, markets are more than places to shop. They define neighborhoods, add to a sense of vitality, serve as anchors where little else seems permanent. In South-Central Los Angeles those contributions may not seem as dramatic as other projects in which politicians invest time and energy, but they are badly needed.