Wednesday, May 24, 2006

What Grocery Dilema?

Downtown St. Louis GrocersSo ever since the first loft was built downtown, one of the major negative's I've heard from local media about urban living is the lack of grocery stores. Ask anyone that moved into 10th Street Lofts in 1999 and that was the case back then. But why do we still hear that question?

Last week at the launch party for Motor Lofts, Kevin McGowan talked about that issue. Currently there are 5 grocers downtown. These are the smaller sized grocer's like City Grocers & Lucas Park Market. There are imminent plans for a grocer at 15th and Lucas. If you want a superstore grocer like Schnucks, there are a few within a short drive (the link has the addresses and distance).

It would be great if a Straub's or Whole Foods Market would also open up downtown. I think that is likely as the population continues to rise.

As Kevin pointed out though, the average St. Louisan drives 1.8 miles to the grocery store. My parents in Ballwin have to drive 2.59 miles to get to the closest Schnucks.

So with 5 small grocer's and several more within a 5 mile radius, what's the problem?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wasn't there a plan to build a Schnuck's in the Eli Parker building?

Chris Grus said...

If there was a plan, someone forgot to run it by the Schnuck's people. I kept hearing a rumor that a Border's and a Schnucks or other specialty grocer was interested in the spot. I think that's all it was though.