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Just because you’ve won one
battle (or two or three), doesn’t mean that the fight is
over. Surely, the adversary is going to return, and likely
with more ferocity.
The Kroger Company’s request
for a zoning change to build a larger Marketplace Store on
property owned by the Sisters of Notre Dame was denied yet
again last week in a lopsided four-to-one decision by the
Plan Commission.
The Cincinnati-based
retailing giant is the nation’s largest supermarket chain
with revenues approaching $110 billion. Kroger is now
executing an all-out lobbying blitz on individual city
council members in a highly politicized effort to obtain the
nine votes needed to overrule the plan commission’s
decision.
Although victorious in past
Toledo supermarket wars, Kroger now finds itself facing new
industry competition from companies like Costco, Whole
Foods, Fresh Market and Fresh Thyme. The 150,000 square-foot
marketplace model, which Kroger would like to combine the
Notre Dame high school and daycare campus with a retail mini
mall to sell groceries along with clothing, furniture and
other items, is the business model Kroger feels will fit its
current competitive environment.
At the moment, flexing
support from the powerful Northwest Ohio Building Trades, it
is believed that the powerful mega retailer has a winning
hand, needing merely a single vote from among council
members Tyrone Riley, Sandy Spang, Peter Ujvagi or Yvonne
Harper.
Yet, apparently unlike their
colleagues, each of the four members is determined to stand
up to the mammoth retailer.
A matter of principle, they
unanimously feel.
“I am very much a supporter
of Kroger, don’t get me wrong,” says Ujvagi, “but I am a
rock solid ‘no’ because it’s absolutely the wrong place to
put it. It’s really bad urban planning with everything from
transportation and traffic issues to the appropriate use and
intensity on a piece of land, which is absolutely the
appropriate policy decision of city council.”
Spang, who has also vowed
that her ‘no’ vote will not change, sees
over-commercialization she suspects will lead to mass
vacancies in the Monroe-Secor corridor similar to those
currently along Reynolds Road and the former Southwyck Mall,
as an inevitable consequence.
“There’s already a pushback
from the community,” she says. “Some of our best residential
communities are going to be under so much stress because of
the traffic problems, and they already are. They are already
wanting to tear houses down to widen Secor Road because of
the traffic volume.”
However, it will take more
than arguments about good land use and smart urban planning
for east side and central city residents who look for
tangible returns on their electoral investments that will
address the “back-against-the-wall” issues they constantly
face.
Kroger has, over time,
abandoned the central city and east side to strategically
locate closer to suburban city boundaries, producing a ring
around the City of Toledo while leaving a dramatic void in
the urban core.
Attempting to attract
customers from Ottawa Hills, West Toledo and Old Orchard,
and also Maumee, Perrysburg, Oregon and Sylvania, Kroger has
attempted to “have it all,” knowing that the number of low
to moderate income customers will decline as its stores
locate at the mouth of suburban expressways. Their strategy,
effectively, creates food deserts whereby central city
residents have difficulty finding healthy, culturally
relevant foods and rely, instead, on fast foods or expensive
and out-of-date foods from carry-outs and corner stores.
This contributes mightily to the perpetuation of poverty and
higher rates of diabetes and other health issues so
prevalent in the urban core.
Thus, Riley and Harper,
already on record as being against the zoning change, should
continue to hold out until they are able to negotiate
tangible returns that benefit their constituents.
What kind of returns?
Kroger should construct
smaller no-frills, low pricing store models that are stocked
with store brands and fresh produce in areas of the city
that may not possess the level of income that exists in the
suburbs.
While they have paid lip
service to constructing this model, Kroger seems to be
trying to run out the clock and has failed to put anything
concrete on the table.
In addition to retail store
opportunities, Kroger also owns dozens of grocery
manufacturing and bakery, dairy and beverage plants, which
produce its private label and regional brand products.
Providing a manufacturing facility in the urban core would
provide much needed jobs, restore vibrancy to the area, and
increase consumption and ultimately secure additional market
share.
Is there a risk of Kroger
leaving Toledo because of the four “standup” councilpersons?
“No,” says Spang, emphatically. “I am
totally calling Kroger’s bluff. Toledo’s a very good market
for them. They will stay on the Monroe/Secor corner because
that location is a cash cow for them and the bank branch
inside is one of Fifth Third’s highest performers. We just
have to stand up and quit being such a needy city that we
accept the dregs of anything.
So, no, Kroger isn’t going to leave Toledo.
They will solve the problem. This is their own corporate
problem to figure out.”
In other words, the Kroger battle will result
in victory and bring tangible benefits to residents living
in the urban core if the four councilpersons will only
continue to cling to their principles and face the giant.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
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