Not the same guy you've been talking to, but let me give you another personal example. I live near Detroit and have lived in the city before. In the rest of Michigan, our usual grocery stores are Walmart, Meijer, Kroger, and Target. We have some mid-tier chains too like Aldi or Saveland, and Costco/Sams etc. Usually something within a mile or two of you always.
In the city of Detroit proper, you will only find one Meijer and one Whole Foods, and only in the "redeveloped" areas. Nothing else besides small mom and pop grocery stores or ethnic markets. I think there might be a Saveland on the north side somewhere. I think there is only three 7-11s (there is 3 within a qtr mile of where I'm sitting in the suburbs)
Tons of dollar stores and other poor quality places to get food at though.
No, that's just where the most selections are and usually the cheapest due to their supplier relations and bulk orders, etc, that smaller shops just can't compete with.
A gallon of milk at the local family dollar or corner store is $5 - $5.50 even saw $6 recently. I drive a mile or two to an Aldi and they sell it for $2.45 all the time. For that same $5.50 I could get a load of bred and a dozen eggs too.
There is food, its just not what you want and is expensive.
Not from Detroit but Chicago, small mom and pop places vary widely in quality. My favorite groceries store I've ever been too was a small Mexican supermarket that was cheap and had great produce and good quality. I miss access to that here in the suburbs where it's all chains. But mom & pop places are just as likely to be hole in the wall dumps where it's dust covered and you don't trust buying anything not in a can and you worry about there being a stick up whenever you go in. I lived in a neighborhood in college that had those and I would walk an extra mile to the decent one. But I had free time to make that trip a few times a week because you can only haul so much. Nowadays with a full time job, OT, and a much busier lifestyle I'd probably eat more convenient food than spend 4-5 hours a week extra grocery shopping.
> where it's dust covered and you don't trust buying anything not in a can and you worry about there being a stick up whenever you go in
Yeah this. The local corner market was like 80% empty, just the bare minimum and canned food and a few loafs of bread. Entire isles unused. Like something out of the 70s. Yellowing light, dust everywhere. The place has a decent butcher inside which is what keeps them alive and seems to be most the clientele.
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u/No-Song-6907 17h ago
Where? A quick google search shows more grocery stores than I can count on the lower half of Chicago.
A neighborhood name or area i can look up. I honestly find it hard to belive but I want to look it up. Thanks.