I was raised in a small, somewhat rural hometown. Maybe 7,000 people at last count.

My siblings still live there and I keep in touch with happenings in the town.
The hometown has 4 grocery stores. Walmart, Aldi and two chain locations.

Yesterday, one of the two chains announced it is shutting down the location in the town.
It is the only grocery store within the city limits.
The other 3, are close by (within a few miles) but are considered outside of the city.
Some people who live in the town are pitching a fit because apparently they
do not own a car (the town is small, but low income)...
Others are suggesting they sign up for Walmart delivery (I think that's $50 per year? not sure)
or other delivery services.
Again, that's not good enough.
They are demanding the city do something about it.

I am sorry they are having to make other arrangements BUT do the taxpayers
of the town owe these non-drivers a means of getting groceries?

It's a thorny one.

I am reminded of many urban neighborhoods where the people complain there are no
grocery stores, only convenience stores.
The grocery management states that stores there in the past have been
unprofitable. I don't think you can force a company to do business where it doesn't want to.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2026 08:38PM by BarefootBliss.

I get it.. the folks in this town near me keep asking the mayor and the city council for fast food places. Municipalities have no control over what companies decide to sell their wares in their city. They can offer incentives to bring companies in, but there is no way to compel them to open a store or keep one open if they don't want to.

Food deserts are very common here in AL. There are entire remote towns that have nothing but a mom and pop convenience store.

Here in Northern AL we have the Mitchell groceries company that has a bunch of different store names and work at keeping prices higher for the folks that can least afford it. The produce sections are all plastic wrapped, some items on styrofoam trays like they sell meat on, some just in plastic bags, for twice the price of stores like Kroger or Publix. Their "bakery" sells frozen cakes, they have piping bags and cake decorators. Their deli sections sell hot "southern" meals, fried chicken, the most awful slimy mac and roni cheese you've ever seen, macaroni salad. Overcooked and over salted greens with red stuff that I assume is either ham or corned beef in it. Oh, yea, and ALWAYS fried okra, that no one ever seems to eat, that tray is full ALL of the time. No bread that isn't made by a machine and packaged somewhere else.

I can drive 30+ miles to the nearest Kroger, get fresher vegetables for half as much, cold cuts sliced to order, meat for $2 - $3 less per lb. There is a Publix that is only about 15 miles away, they have GREAT customer service, but they keep their prices higher at that location because their only competition is a Mitchell groceries
store that sells crap for far more.

A few years ago Whole Foods closed a location in Chicago due to lack of profits. There was a huge fuss but in the end--a business can not be forced to stay open. The same scenario is happening with urban Walgreens. They close a location and folks now have to take 2 busses to pick up meds.

So it seems in 2026, the problem is if you live in a lower income urban location or a lower income rural location, your chances of being adequately served for medicines and reasonably priced fresh food, are diminishing?

I can see why this is a problem...I really can....but I think the solution is up to the person....not to corporations or companies that only exist to profit (to state the obvious - the big and only economic system or game we have here in the US) or to the taxpayers....

Before I retired, I always had to move for work/income and almost always to places I didn't want to live or places that were expensive or choked with traffic....so I am sympathetic and yet a person has to do what they have to do...not always look to outside forces for help.

Some probably find that harsh, but mystery shoppers are used to hustling, so they probably get it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2026 11:43AM by BarefootBliss.

Another thought....was it always this way? i.e. some places not served with the basics?

As a kid, I remember my grandparents driving quite the distance to get to a grocery store...but it seemed like that's just the way it was....but those stores are now closed, so things HAVE changed?

Also, years ago, my town had neighborhood convenience stores, owned my families, not by companies...they were not like the convenience stores of today....the person who rang you up also wore a bloody butchers apron, since they sold fresh meat and eggs, there were various groceries, usually small sizes...newspapers, candy, smokes, etc.
Those are ALL gone and not replaced....now there are gas stations and dollar stores only.
So maybe that's the issue....only corporations can be profitable now and only in certain areas....because of scale.
Farmers? heads up.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2026 11:45AM by BarefootBliss.

MLZ, I notice that too....some grocery stores have a bakery, a deli section or whatever but NOTHING looks like it was actually prepared there.

In my area I feel grocers exploit periods of inflation. Gas prices are down, but grocery prices are not, apart from eggs.

SD, are you in the right thread?....this is a thread dealing with the economics of grocery store locations.

"do the taxpayers of the town owe these non-drivers a means of getting groceries?" That is up to the taxpayers; by way of who they vote for to be mayor and council members - assuming it even is an incorporated city and has a Mayor or City Manager.
Cities can't force a store to open or stay open, but can offer incentives to attract new stores - or provide transportation for their residents. Many small towns do particularly for Seniors, such as for Doctor/medical appointments. There is no reason that similar can't be done for grocery shopping - other than money which points back to voters deciding if they want their city to provide that. If not through the city, how about churches? Many already own vans for weekend retreats, summer bible school,... Another option would be for the city or some centralized org. to set up a ride share / request data base in which those without can register a request for a ride and those who are heading to the next town or wherever to shop can offer to take them along.
Small towns are typically pretty close knit, surely they can rally to come up with a viable solution. Large cities where people don't know even their immediate next door their neighbors and public transportation, if any, doesn't extend beyond the central business district into residential areas tend to be food deserts as much as small rural areas.

Having 4 grocery stores for a population of only 7K seems high.

Grocery stores aren't really necessary.. I know we've become dependent on them because we won't be bothered to even try to grow something beneficial for ourselves. Every year in the nurseries there are fewer and fewer vegetable seeds. It seems as if the only things that folks grow for themselves anymore is tomatoes and cucumbers or zucchini. And some folks can't even be bothered to grow those things. But they'll have hanging plants all over their house that are poisonous to eat, or toxic to the other animals in their homes, like their dogs and cats.

I'm old, and I know it. I grew up in a very different world. Either we grew or my grandparents grew almost all of our vegetables. If we went to a grocery store at all it was for dry goods, grains and sugar that we just didn't have the available land to grow for ourselves. Folks cooked at home, McDonalds used to be a rare treat maybe once a month, if that, or as a reward for doing something good. I have seen stoves sold on marketplace that homeowners are selling as brand new because they don't cook at home.

We had butchers, and dairy farm stands, and bakeries.. these things don't exist anymore, it's all made in factories with artificial ingredients and poisons and sold to us as "fresh" in nationwide chain stores. The butchershop that I used to stop by after school is now a bicycle shop. The dairies are all gone, even the drive through farm stands where we used to get fresh milk are gone, some got turned into liquor stores, some just got plowed under or turned into gas stations. Bakeries became "donut shops" and then they started fading away too. There aren't anymore Winchell's, and Dunkin' never really was a donut shop, their main claim to fame is coffee. When was the last time you saw a buttermilk bar in a donut shop?

Where I live in Idaho, there are several churches that have buses that one or 2 days a week pick up people and take them to the grocery store, drug store. and pick them back up.

"we won't be bothered to even try to grow something beneficial for ourselves."
much as I love and admire you Mor---- don't you live in a Southern state? I live in Northern IL were I would starve in late Winter and early Spring because nothing grows in below freezing temps.

Rho, I'm in Northern AL.. my weather here isn't completely dissimilar from yours, just milder and a little less predictable. We get smaller tornados and the snow rarely sticks for more than a few hours.. lol

To grow stuff here we have to start seeds inside or in a greenhouse, there is rarely any opportunity to plant them from seeds outside until May, the second year we were here we were still getting freezing temps and frost into June. I put all of my vegetable garden on a table on the back deck in April when it had been warm for a few days.. because I didn't know any better.

yes, 4 groceries for 7K does seem a lot, but I didn't paint the full picture.

The 7K town is surrounded by several 1K and 2k and 3K towns that have NO grocery stores....

So they draw from a larger population than I originally described....

Since I first posted about it - things have grown contentious, some of the townspeople believe the groceries should be personally delivered to the elderly, homeless, drug addicted, etc...

It's a really topsy turvy model....trying to get a few who work, to serve the many who cannot or will not...
and then they wonder why they lose population as people leave for better areas....
That's all I will say for now as this can quickly escalate to politics and that topic we've had a break from here since the holidays, thankfully.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

So it seems in 2026, the problem is if you live in a lower income urban location or a lower income rural location, your chances of being adequately served for medicines and reasonably priced fresh food, are diminishing?

I can see why this is a problem...I really can....but I think the solution is up to the person....not to corporations or companies that only exist to profit (to state the obvious - the big and only economic system or game we have here in the US) or to the taxpayers....

Before I retired, I always had to move for work/income and almost always to places I didn't want to live or places that were expensive or choked with traffic....so I am sympathetic and yet a person has to do what they have to do...not always look to outside forces for help.

Some probably find that harsh, but mystery shoppers are used to hustling, so they probably get it.

I think it is time for people to normalize moving. If you can't survive in a particular area, do what you can to relocate to a place that is more suitable for your skills and abilities. I moved from a city to a more rural area with a lower cost of living, less access to public transportation, etc. so the tradeoff is that you have to be more independent - I.E., have your own vehicle and ability to pay for gas and do your own shopping. If you can't find work that will support this, then maybe you have to stay in an area with stores in walking distance or more robust public transportation.