Vons to Open 12 Stores in Inner-City Locations : Rebuilding: Expansion could create up to 2,000 jobs and help reverse nearly 30 years of redlining by retailers.

In a bold action that will help reverse nearly 30 years of retail redlining, the Vons Cos. on Thursday announced a $100-million plan to build grocery stores in inner-city Los Angeles and surrounding communities.

Vons Chairman Roger Stangeland said the firm intends to build 12 or more stores as quickly as practical--not because “we are do-gooders or philanthropists,” he said, but because of a business judgment that there are opportunities in the inner city.

Other chains--including Food 4 Less, Lucky and Smart & Final--also have recently opened stores or made expansion plans for parts of Greater Los Angeles that have been neglected by most major grocery companies in the years since the 1965 Watts riots.

Grocers have explained that high costs of doing business have discouraged investment in inner cities, while consumer groups and inner-city residents have complained about high prices, poor food quality and inadequate service, selection and competition.

Stangeland said Thursday’s announcement had its roots “in a critical self-examination” last year of Vons’ urban operations--a review that found “nearly 2 million underserved or unserved consumers” at the center of the chain’s 329-store network.

“Over a long period of time we simply lost sight of the opportunity that existed in the neglected areas--and shame on us for being so late to rediscover the opportunity,” Stangeland said. “As a responsible corporate citizen and a leading area retailer, we recognize the need to be at least a part of the solution--not a compounder of the problem.”

Vons’ announcement--the biggest corporate investment in Los Angeles since the riots--was made at the site of a closed Sears store in Inglewood, which will be the location of the first Vons to be built under the multi-year expansion program. Inglewood Mayor Edward Vincent hailed the move, noting that he was particularly pleased because he lives two minutes from the site.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley touted the announcement as the first of many that Rebuild L.A., the city’s post-riot revitalization effort, will make as part of its effort to reinvigorate economic life in South Los Angeles. Vons estimates that the 12 new stores will create between 1,000 and 2,000 permanent jobs and generate an annual payroll in excess of $30 million.

Experts said they were amazed by the scale of Vons’ plans. “This is a helluva investment in the central city,” said Howard L. Green, chairman of a Detroit company specializing in retail expansion planning. “This is a good act of corporate courage. It’s tough to go into the central city.”

Indeed, a survey of 25 large cities--including Los Angeles--by the U.S. Conference of Mayors last December found that only two had seen an increase in supermarkets in low-income areas during the previous year.

Locally, the 1 million residents of South Los Angeles have remained abandoned consumers in the 27 years since the Watts riots first called attention to the economic and social shortchanging of the city’s minority neighborhoods.

They pay higher prices and have access to a smaller selection of goods. Routinely, they travel long distances to find basic goods and services that are readily available in other neighborhoods.

In some ways, the situation is worse than it was in 1965. While the population of South Los Angeles has grown--and as its pockets of affluence thrive--most major retailers have been fleeing or avoiding the largely depressed area.

In an area recently examined by The Times--bounded by the Santa Monica Freeway to the north and including Inglewood, South Los Angeles and portions of Compton, Gardena, Hawthorne and Huntington Park--there were only 74 supermarkets out of the 755 in Los Angeles County. Based on 1991 population estimates, there is one supermarket for every 15,198 persons in that area, compared to one supermarket for every 11,929 persons countywide.

Rebuild L.A. Chairman Peter V. Ueberroth praised Vons for setting a good example for other companies.

“It takes courage to be first,” he said. “They’ve provided a Good Housekeeping seal of approval to all those corporations throughout America who wonder: ‘Should we really invest in the inner city?’ . . . . They’ve stepped up. They’re the bell cow.”

As part of the new initiative, Vons--the Southland’s largest supermarket chain--plans immediately to demolish its Tianguis store at 3rd and Bonnie Brae streets in Los Angeles’ Pico-Union neighborhood and rebuild at twice the size.

Vons has firm plans for another seven sites as well--three of which it owns, one which it has under lease and three on which it has made leasing or purchase offers, Stangeland said. A map distributed by the company indicated that other possible sites are in South-Central Los Angeles, Compton, Carson and a sector of the county running from South Gate to Paramount.

Stangeland stressed that the company, whose hourly employees are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, will recruit employees from the neighborhoods surrounding the new stores.

The Inglewood store is expected to be open within a year. The demolition of the Sears store will beundertaken by a black contractor, Joe Williams, who was introduced at the news conference.

Consumer activists said food retailing in South Los Angeles will be more competitive as a result of Vons’ expansion. “There will be a lot of pressure on those already operating there to match Vons’ prices,” said Ken McEldowney, executive director of Consumer Action, a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group.

“Supermarkets, which are run by people in the upper middle class, have been shortsighted,” he said. “Recent surveys show that stores serving urban areas can be very successful--even if they are charging the same prices that they offer in the suburbs.”

Indeed, retailing experts said Vons’ plans could herald a resurgence in the grocery business in South Los Angeles.

“Some companies--such as Food 4 Less and independent store operators--have developed a niche in South Los Angeles,” said Sheila O’Connell, an industry analyst at Duff & Phelps in Chicago. “Most other major chains have concentrated on other parts of the city and the suburbs. I think a number of chains may try to make a comeback in South Los Angeles. If they find the proper sites and if it makes sense economically, they’ll do it.”

Already, some food retailers have had success in the area.

The supermarket in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza opened by Lucky Stores on April 2 is among the 430-store chain’s top 20% in revenues, said spokeswoman Judith Decker. “Sales are more than meeting our expectations,” she said.

Smart & Final, which operates discount operations that sell food products in bulk, has also been happy with its performance in South Los Angeles, said Roger M. Laverty, president of the Vernon-based retailer. The company plans to rebuild a store on South Vermont Avenue that was destroyed during the riots.

“We have one price for all stores, and it’s a low-cost strategy,” said Laverty, whose firm also has outlets in Compton and Ingelwood. Revenue at Smart & Final’s stores in South Los Angeles and Compton is up about 16% this year--twice the average gain for the company’s 118 stores in California, Arizona and Nevada.

Food 4 Less, which operates warehouse stores and the Boys and Viva supermarkets, plans to build two stores in South Los Angeles--one at Adams Boulevard and Vermont Avenue and another at Pico Boulevard and Alvarado Street. The company also plans to open an outdoor marketplace at 52nd Street and Broadway next week.

While Vons is planning full-service stores, Food 4 Less--the dominant chain in the inner city since other grocers pulled out after the Watts riots--is emphasizing lower-cost warehouse outlets in its expansion plans.

Times staff writer Stuart Silverstein also contributed to this article.