Menu
- The FBI may be in your router (4/15/25)
- Instead of changing the rules, embrace the purpose of the game (4/11/25)
- Reading the signs and considering the future (4/10/25)
- The limits of tariffs, then and now (4/8/25)
- Good Intentions, but at what cost? (4/4/25)
- Honoring Nebraska’s Vietnam Veterans (4/3/25)
- Keeping an eye out for “Humphrey’s Executor” (4/1/25)
Editorial
As the grocery store goes, so goes the town
Monday, November 8, 2010
Besides the struggle to keep a local school open, nothing illustrates the plight of small rural towns better than the loss of the local grocery story.
The Center for Rural Affairs advocacy group today released two reports that point out just how important those small grocery stores are, and what some people are doing to help them survive.
We've long denied being part of the pre-settlement "Great American Desert," but the Great Plains has been classified as having more "food deserts" than any other region in the country.
We have 418 counties where all the residents are 10 miles or more away from a full-service grocery store. Granted, 10 miles is nothing to a Sandhills rancher, but it is a serious issue for low income residents without access to transportation.
In Iowa, for example, the number of grocery stores with employees dropped by almost half from 1995 to 2005, from about 1,400 in 1995 to slightly more than 700 just 10 years later, according to the Center for Rural Affairs release. Not surprisingly, "supercenter" grocery stores increased by 175 percent in the 10 year period.
Rural grocery stories, besides providing a vital source of nutrition, also provide the jobs and tax revenue that support the community.
Losing a grocery store means residents have less access to healthy fresh fruits and vegetable, meaning the elderly may have to go for longer periods between visits to the store. Younger families are less likely to want to live in a community without a place to purchase food -- and buying food out of town is a hard habit to break.
"Many reasons conspire to leave a community without a grocery store," said Jon Bailey, author of the reports and director of rural research and analysis at the Center for Rural Affairs. "declining populations, out-commuting -- going to work and presumably shopping in other communities -- and aging ownership and lack of transfer opportunities may leave communities without a local store when owners retire or decide to leave their businesses."
According to Bailey's second report, rural communities without a grocery store have four basic ways to keep a grocery store's lights one -- community owned, cooperative, school based and the traditional independent retailer model. We have seen each of these tried in our area with varying success, and perhaps new models will emerge in the near future.
Yes, rural grocery stores and their communities face an uncertain future, Bailey said, "but we believe the future of these communities holds abundant promise if new economic models are encouraged and implemented."
By thinking outside the box -- and especially the big-box store -- rural communities can shape their own future.
Complete copies of the reports are available on the CRA website, http://www.cfra.org/
Report comment to editor