Food 4 Less Opens Amid Fanfare

More than seven months after being looted in the spring riots, The Boys market in the Martin Luther King Jr. Shopping Center reopened Thursday as a Food 4 Less discount outlet.

Some community activists had threatened to picket the new store to express their anger about the decision by Food 4 Less--parent company of The Boys--to convert the previous full-service grocery into a warehouse store. But recent negotiations appear to have settled the problems.

Food 4 Less has agreed to bag and cart groceries for customers who request the services. Founders National Bank also will provide money orders, check cashing and other financial services through a Founders Express outlet inside the market. Those services had been available at The Boys but are not typically offered at Food 4 Less warehouse outlets.

“I am just happy the store is going to be open and will help so many people,” said Davis Rodgers, president of the Watts chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. “We felt this was the best way to get our community up and going again. I think they (Food 4 Less) were honest with us.”

The company and the community held a grand reopening celebration Saturday.

The reopened market will employ 150 people--54 from within the Food 4 Less chain and 96 new employees from the community. More than 2,100 people applied for positions when the company handed out applications last month.

Food 4 Less officials said the store will provide the same quality of food as its predecessor, but will do twice the volume. The store is expected to gross $26 million a year, compared to the $14 million The Boys grossed annually, said Tony Schnug, Food 4 Less senior vice president of administration.

“We hope the reopening will reinvigorate the center,” Schnug said. “I am really proud of the way this has come out.”