Trader Joes booted out of NE Portland by activists.

[ancianita]

60. I get the historical bona fides of Trader Joe's. The class of people who made them famous are not

the people struggling in this area, from what I gather. I understand how there's brand loyalty and all, and how supermarket chains have competed to get that market. But I also understand how the appearance of perceived 'gentrified' brands brings a tax, rent and social pressure on poorer neighborhoods that want to have affordable nutritional food. Since as long as I've lived there -- forty years -- these fights have gone on in Chicago neighborhoods.

As far as the larger picture goes, I'll wager there's a reason behind why TJ's doesn't fight for poorer markets. The owners know about the stakes of the long standing fights to keep one's place, even if that means neighborhoods cope with living in a food desert. I'll grant that TJ's has the decency to not complicate long existing issues that local protestors might know more about than we do.

Finally, the West Side and South Side of Chicago have Whole Foods and Costco, because the markets were too big and compelling. But for a while there, those neighborhoods were food deserts. I enjoy going to either place and seeing all colors and classes of the local people shopping. While food stores can bring in the urban removers, they can also promote growth and health of locals that doesn't threaten their housing affordability.

I'm happy to be corrected if it can be shown that the protestors are wrong, but I think they have a long term handle on the strategies being used in this situation, and how their own tactics move them closer to their own goals, not someone else's.