Ralphs in Inner City

In the Nov. 18 paper, Ralphs was included among the list of 20 companies having no current plans to invest in the inner city. This came as a great surprise and shock to me since Ralphs has operated in the central city and the inner city for all of its 119 years of existence. Following the civil disturbances, we quickly rebuilt two stores which had been almost totally destroyed. Then we followed by completely remodeling several of our stores that had been damaged during that period.

When I was asked by the reporter about plans for further investment, I simply said that we were reviewing other store site possibilities, but since we had not signed leases or finished business deals, that we had no commitments at the present time.

If you watched TV, as I am sure you did, during the riots, the National Guard had a command post on two of our store sites (3rd and Vermont and Figueroa and Vernon). The Figueroa and Vernon site was totally rebuilt, restocked and later completely remodeled at a cost of approximately $3 million.

Ralphs is definitely a supporter of Rebuild L.A., and we resent the characterization in your paper that we are not a supporter. Nothing could be further from the truth. We applaud the efforts of Peter Ueberroth and his staff in a very difficult job. We will support them in every way possible.

BYRON ALLUMBAUGH, Chairman and CEO Ralphs Grocery Co., Los Angeles