Boycott nonsense

By Doug Page | Thursday, January 10, 2008, 01:43 PM

How will west Dayton cope with its Kroger gone?

And do you care?

The wealthier you are, the more options you have. You have the money, and the world will beat a path to your door.

The wealthier you are, the more respected and trustworthy you appear. Don’t believe me? Name a millionaire executed for murder.

Ever try to get a loan? If you are flush, the banks will loan you the money. Don’t have money (even if you are working two jobs) and no one is interested except those store-front places.

I understand the pound-of-flesh concept. These “loans” want half your body by the time the charges are totaled.

For many, it’s the only source of emergency cash.

Which is why the payday loans can charge such rates. This is not usury. Usury is illegally loaning money at unreasonably high rates.

What the kind loan folks do is legal. Which begs the question: How can that be?

Something, perhaps, our state legislators might wish to address. Or not.

A grocery store is not a payday loan. It’s the center of the community. It’s where you see nearly everyone. Even the rich have to eat.

So when the grocery chain announced it was closing its North Gettysburg store, the community was appalled.

It seemed — likely was — unfair.

Where else was a body going to get their food? Why should the community be denied a grocery store?

Because it wasn’t making sufficient profit to warrant keeping it open.

Free enterprise is a beast, red in fang and claw. It weeds out the weak, ill-conceived, ill-prepared or outdated ventures.

Urban grocery stores — an endangered species — are often accused of overcharging their patrons. The cost of food is often lower in the suburbs.

The cost of doing business also is often lower in the suburbs. My dad had a hardware store on the “nord side” of Minneapolis, while an uncle had one across the river in a somewhat tonier section of town.

I remember my dad replacing a front display window about once a year. The back door seemed to get kicked in about every third week. When he and I replaced it with a steel door, it lasted a couple months until someone repeatedly rammed it with a stolen truck.

Those costs started to add up.

My uncle replaced one display window in the dozen years he owned his store.

This had nothing to do with race, ethnicity, gender or religion. It had everything to do with wealth, education and despair. Dr. King taught us that.

Many in west Dayton are mad. They believe they should have convenient access to good and affordable food. They want a grocery store.

There is a tinge of irony here. When the store opened in 1987, community activists picketed, calling on the community to patronize other area grocers.

That didn’t work. Nor will boycotting Kroger now. Those days are gone.

Working together might.

Whether you care about west Dayton’s plight might depend on how much money you have in your wallet and how much hope you have in your heart.

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