Here's the details for the Press Conference that will happen today at 1 p.m. on the steps of City Hall, co-sponsored by UFCW Local 1500 and the Neighborhood Retail Alliance
Press Release
Business, Labor, Community and Food Advocates Unite to Promote Supermarket Retention and Protest Higher Grocery Prices Where: City Hall Steps When: 1:00 PM Date: May, 28, 2008
Today on the steps of City Hall at 1:00 PM, a city wide coalition of business, labor, community groups and food advocates, will join with a wide range of elected officials in a call for action on behalf of supermarket preservation. The call for action is stimulated by the fact that, according to a City Planning report, New York has lost over 1/3 of its supermarkets over the past five years. Community residents from many of the impacted neighborhoods that have, or will be, losing markets, will be present to dramatize just what kind of hardship is created when the local supermarket disappears.
Scheduled to appear at tomorrow's press conference, co-sponsored by UFCW Local 1500 and the Neighborhood Retail Alliance, are Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, Congressman Anthony Weiner and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. In addition, council members scheduled to join us will be Anabel Palma, Jimmy Vacca, Eric Gioia, Tish James, Vinnie Gentile, Hiram Monseratte, Melissa Mark-Viterito and Charles Barron. Also, Joel Berg from the NYC Coalition against Hunger and Triada Stampas from the Food Bank will highlight the issue of rising food prices and the need for greater access to food stamps.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Article in Crain's New York
No more miles of aisles By Lisa Fickenscher Crain’s New York Business, May 24. 2008
Supermarkets flee city's high costs; poor neighborhoods hit especially hard
Anyone who wants to know why the number of supermarkets in the city is rapidly declining only needs to ask the people who own them.
In the past five years, about 100 grocery store owners have either left the city entirely or focused their expansion efforts outside the Big Apple. In response to recent reports detailing the situation, a special commission is now struggling to come up with recommendations that might help turn the tide. The experiences of many of the grocers leaving town show, however, that it won't be easy.
"The cost of operating supermarkets in New York City was impossible," says Eligio Peña, who closed the last of his six Associated supermarkets here in 2000 after 30 years in business. Today he co-owns 26 Compare Foods markets in the Carolinas.
Mr. Peña's complaint and his response are common. The National Supermarket Association, a Queens-based group that represents independent chains including Associated, Key Food, Pioneer and C-Town, reports that a quarter of its 400 members have shifted their focus elsewhere, opening stores along the East Coast from Florida and Georgia to as far north as Massachusetts.
"These are very successful entrepreneurs who have moved away," says Nelson Eusebio, president of the trade group.
In another sign of the exodus, local distributor Krasdale Foods today has customers in seven states. It has followed its city-based customers that have been lured out of town by lower rents, taxes, insurance and labor costs. Three years ago, Krasdale had no business outside the New York area.
The defections come at a time when the city can least afford it. A study released this month by the Department of City Planning looks at the combination of dwindling supermarket numbers and a rising population and finds a severe shortage of grocery stores in some neighborhoods.
In three areas of Brooklyn, for example, there is less than 10,000 square feet of supermarket space for every 10,000 residents. That is less than half the amount in many affluent neighborhoods in Manhattan. Approximately 3 million New Yorkers live in supermarket-deprived areas, according to city data.
Last year, the city appointed a food policy coordinator, Ben Thomases, to lead initiatives to address the problem. He has set up a supermarket commission which later this year will suggest economic incentives to attract and keep supermarkets in low-income neighborhoods.
Making matters worse
Meanwhile, grocers argue that one of the city's interim remedies will only exacerbate the problem. They charge that plans to put an additional 1,000 produce vendors on the streets in poorer neighborhoods will siphon business from the produce sections of the supermarkets that remain in those areas.
The industry's main beefs with the city center on high taxes and rent. Veteran grocer Cesar Ramirez is a prime example. Although he still owns three C-Town markets in upper Manhattan and the Bronx, in recent years he has focused his energies on Florida, where he has opened five Freshco stores.
"I definitely wouldn't expand in New York unless there were tax rebates and subsidized rent," says Mr. Ramirez. He notes that he has been able to hold on in New York largely because he owns the real estate at two of his locations.
Without that advantage, many of his peers are facing closure. In what is becoming an increasingly common event in the city, a rally was held last week in front of a Bronx Met Food that the landlord is threatening to replace with a Walgreens.
A tough regulatory environment is also contributing to the exodus. New York is among the minority of states that bar supermarkets from the lucrative trade of selling wine, and is among a handful of states requiring them to accept bottles for recycling.
Life in other states is far easier, as Mr. Peña has discovered. In just seven years, he has built a supermarket empire in North Carolina more than four times as large as his former holdings in New York. He notes that he paid between $3 and $5 in real estate taxes per square foot here, a multiple of North Carolina's rate of 40 cents to $1. One of his biggest savings is on insurance, which now costs him $7,000 a year in North Carolina, compared with $100,000 in New York.
New generation awaits
"Because my expenses are lower, my net profit margins are as much as 10%," says Mr. Peña. "In New York, I was happy if I was making a 2% profit."
As bleak as the outlook may be here, there are some hopeful signs. A new generation of store owners are eagerly waiting for their opportunity.
"There are managers who have worked in a store for 10 years, saved enough money and are ready to take the next step," says Mr. Klein of Krasdale. "But finding a location is the big issue."
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080525/FREE...
Supermarkets flee city's high costs; poor neighborhoods hit especially hard
Anyone who wants to know why the number of supermarkets in the city is rapidly declining only needs to ask the people who own them.
In the past five years, about 100 grocery store owners have either left the city entirely or focused their expansion efforts outside the Big Apple. In response to recent reports detailing the situation, a special commission is now struggling to come up with recommendations that might help turn the tide. The experiences of many of the grocers leaving town show, however, that it won't be easy.
"The cost of operating supermarkets in New York City was impossible," says Eligio Peña, who closed the last of his six Associated supermarkets here in 2000 after 30 years in business. Today he co-owns 26 Compare Foods markets in the Carolinas.
Mr. Peña's complaint and his response are common. The National Supermarket Association, a Queens-based group that represents independent chains including Associated, Key Food, Pioneer and C-Town, reports that a quarter of its 400 members have shifted their focus elsewhere, opening stores along the East Coast from Florida and Georgia to as far north as Massachusetts.
"These are very successful entrepreneurs who have moved away," says Nelson Eusebio, president of the trade group.
In another sign of the exodus, local distributor Krasdale Foods today has customers in seven states. It has followed its city-based customers that have been lured out of town by lower rents, taxes, insurance and labor costs. Three years ago, Krasdale had no business outside the New York area.
The defections come at a time when the city can least afford it. A study released this month by the Department of City Planning looks at the combination of dwindling supermarket numbers and a rising population and finds a severe shortage of grocery stores in some neighborhoods.
In three areas of Brooklyn, for example, there is less than 10,000 square feet of supermarket space for every 10,000 residents. That is less than half the amount in many affluent neighborhoods in Manhattan. Approximately 3 million New Yorkers live in supermarket-deprived areas, according to city data.
Last year, the city appointed a food policy coordinator, Ben Thomases, to lead initiatives to address the problem. He has set up a supermarket commission which later this year will suggest economic incentives to attract and keep supermarkets in low-income neighborhoods.
Making matters worse
Meanwhile, grocers argue that one of the city's interim remedies will only exacerbate the problem. They charge that plans to put an additional 1,000 produce vendors on the streets in poorer neighborhoods will siphon business from the produce sections of the supermarkets that remain in those areas.
The industry's main beefs with the city center on high taxes and rent. Veteran grocer Cesar Ramirez is a prime example. Although he still owns three C-Town markets in upper Manhattan and the Bronx, in recent years he has focused his energies on Florida, where he has opened five Freshco stores.
"I definitely wouldn't expand in New York unless there were tax rebates and subsidized rent," says Mr. Ramirez. He notes that he has been able to hold on in New York largely because he owns the real estate at two of his locations.
Without that advantage, many of his peers are facing closure. In what is becoming an increasingly common event in the city, a rally was held last week in front of a Bronx Met Food that the landlord is threatening to replace with a Walgreens.
A tough regulatory environment is also contributing to the exodus. New York is among the minority of states that bar supermarkets from the lucrative trade of selling wine, and is among a handful of states requiring them to accept bottles for recycling.
Life in other states is far easier, as Mr. Peña has discovered. In just seven years, he has built a supermarket empire in North Carolina more than four times as large as his former holdings in New York. He notes that he paid between $3 and $5 in real estate taxes per square foot here, a multiple of North Carolina's rate of 40 cents to $1. One of his biggest savings is on insurance, which now costs him $7,000 a year in North Carolina, compared with $100,000 in New York.
New generation awaits
"Because my expenses are lower, my net profit margins are as much as 10%," says Mr. Peña. "In New York, I was happy if I was making a 2% profit."
As bleak as the outlook may be here, there are some hopeful signs. A new generation of store owners are eagerly waiting for their opportunity.
"There are managers who have worked in a store for 10 years, saved enough money and are ready to take the next step," says Mr. Klein of Krasdale. "But finding a location is the big issue."
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080525/FREE...
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Serrano Testimony to NYS Council on Food Policy
Testimony by State Senator Jose M. Serrano given before the New York State Council on Food Policy on April 3, 2008
Supermarkets are closing in East Harlem. The reasons are varied and hard to define precisely, but it lies somewhere in the nexus between rising rents, higher food prices and increasing energy costs which affect everything from refrigeration to lighting to deliveries. The skyrocketing cost of doing business in East Harlem has recently caused multiple supermarkets to close their doors. A spate of further closures looms just over the horizon.
We are looking at a public health crisis of dangerous proportions. The supermarkets that are able to provide a wide variety of fresh and nutritious food at reasonable prices cannot afford to do business in our community any longer. East Harlem already has some of the highest rates of preventable diet related diseases in the city. I dread the social cost of having the remaining healthy options driven out.
Some of our constituents are determined to eat healthy and are willing to make lengthy trips in order to get nutritious food. However, for many of our elderly and disabled residents that is not an option. In one striking example, a neighborhood resident was carrying her groceries back from the market when she had a heart attack. She used to shop at a nearby Pioneer Supermarket, which closed in February.
We formed a task force to address this crucial issue at a time when the future of the neighborhood is being shaped in important ways. The task force is an attempt to bring together all the relevant stakeholders, from business to non-profits to community residents, and meet with representatives from various government agencies and elected officials to discuss and explore solutions.
Our first meeting brought in Ben Thomases, the Food Policy Coordinator in Mayor Bloomberg's administration. We presented him with East Harlem specific information gathered by our office. The task force looks forward to a continued dialogue with the Mayor's office.
We hosted representatives of a company that owns six Northern Manhattan markets at our second meeting in order to understand the business aspects of owning a supermarket in East Harlem. It was informative hearing about the costs of operating a supermarket and the barriers that exist to success.
We are currently communicating with The Food Trust from Pennsylvania. This non-profit has successfully fought for improved food access throughout low-income communities in that state. We hope to combine resources and ideas with the group to bring forward solutions that will work in East Harlem and ultimately throughout all of New York.
As I said before, it is difficult for us to pinpoint the exact causeof supermarket closures. Obviously, skyrocketing rents in East Harlem have emerged as the easy answer to the problem. We are looking at possible commercial rent stabilization mechanisms to ensure that food retailers can depend on the steady rents that make a business viable.
However rising rents are not the sole reason for the market closures. The costs of doing business have risen across the board, bringing up the price of food. Yet New York City is still not claiming all the food stamp dollars to which is it entitled. Five hundred million dollars in federal benefits that residents of this city qualified for were not claimed last year. We must close this gap, while encouraging the use of those dollars on healthy purchases. To this end, our office has been looking at ways to make the ability to redeem EBT dollars contingent on grocers stocking healthy offerings.
Another possible course of action would be a program that offers low- cost loans and grants to help small community grocers grow to meet the needs of the community. East Harlem is full of an entrepreneurial spirit that can be harnessed to meet these great challenges. Furthermore, if these businesses hire within the community, we further spur economic development and put more dollars in the pockets of neighborhood shoppers.
Finally there is the question of education. Our friends at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene deserve the highest praise for their campaigns to increase awareness of healthy lifestyle choices in Northern Manhattan.
I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. We invite any suggestions the Council on Food Policy might have as to how to continue to move forward efficiently and effectively. We also would like to extend an invitation to the council to send a representative to the next meeting of the supermarket task force. It is our hope we can foster a strong working relationship and move forward to solve this problem together.
Supermarkets are closing in East Harlem. The reasons are varied and hard to define precisely, but it lies somewhere in the nexus between rising rents, higher food prices and increasing energy costs which affect everything from refrigeration to lighting to deliveries. The skyrocketing cost of doing business in East Harlem has recently caused multiple supermarkets to close their doors. A spate of further closures looms just over the horizon.
We are looking at a public health crisis of dangerous proportions. The supermarkets that are able to provide a wide variety of fresh and nutritious food at reasonable prices cannot afford to do business in our community any longer. East Harlem already has some of the highest rates of preventable diet related diseases in the city. I dread the social cost of having the remaining healthy options driven out.
Some of our constituents are determined to eat healthy and are willing to make lengthy trips in order to get nutritious food. However, for many of our elderly and disabled residents that is not an option. In one striking example, a neighborhood resident was carrying her groceries back from the market when she had a heart attack. She used to shop at a nearby Pioneer Supermarket, which closed in February.
We formed a task force to address this crucial issue at a time when the future of the neighborhood is being shaped in important ways. The task force is an attempt to bring together all the relevant stakeholders, from business to non-profits to community residents, and meet with representatives from various government agencies and elected officials to discuss and explore solutions.
Our first meeting brought in Ben Thomases, the Food Policy Coordinator in Mayor Bloomberg's administration. We presented him with East Harlem specific information gathered by our office. The task force looks forward to a continued dialogue with the Mayor's office.
We hosted representatives of a company that owns six Northern Manhattan markets at our second meeting in order to understand the business aspects of owning a supermarket in East Harlem. It was informative hearing about the costs of operating a supermarket and the barriers that exist to success.
We are currently communicating with The Food Trust from Pennsylvania. This non-profit has successfully fought for improved food access throughout low-income communities in that state. We hope to combine resources and ideas with the group to bring forward solutions that will work in East Harlem and ultimately throughout all of New York.
As I said before, it is difficult for us to pinpoint the exact causeof supermarket closures. Obviously, skyrocketing rents in East Harlem have emerged as the easy answer to the problem. We are looking at possible commercial rent stabilization mechanisms to ensure that food retailers can depend on the steady rents that make a business viable.
However rising rents are not the sole reason for the market closures. The costs of doing business have risen across the board, bringing up the price of food. Yet New York City is still not claiming all the food stamp dollars to which is it entitled. Five hundred million dollars in federal benefits that residents of this city qualified for were not claimed last year. We must close this gap, while encouraging the use of those dollars on healthy purchases. To this end, our office has been looking at ways to make the ability to redeem EBT dollars contingent on grocers stocking healthy offerings.
Another possible course of action would be a program that offers low- cost loans and grants to help small community grocers grow to meet the needs of the community. East Harlem is full of an entrepreneurial spirit that can be harnessed to meet these great challenges. Furthermore, if these businesses hire within the community, we further spur economic development and put more dollars in the pockets of neighborhood shoppers.
Finally there is the question of education. Our friends at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene deserve the highest praise for their campaigns to increase awareness of healthy lifestyle choices in Northern Manhattan.
I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. We invite any suggestions the Council on Food Policy might have as to how to continue to move forward efficiently and effectively. We also would like to extend an invitation to the council to send a representative to the next meeting of the supermarket task force. It is our hope we can foster a strong working relationship and move forward to solve this problem together.
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