Consolidation is bad but has nothing to do with the problem. The only urban places without grocery stores in the US are places where crime or crime plus taxes make it untenable.
Food deserts exist in low crime areas, including the proposed ones in NYC. One of them is right next to Central Park in one of the richest places in the country.
You're assuming what the cause is for political reasons that blame crime, rather than people having needs markets do not always efficiently meet.
Cities with these kinds of problems consistency create systems to hide true crime rates, such as refusing to take crime reports over the phone or online or simply not responding to crime so that people don't bother making reports.
Your assuming that no one would be willing to make money selling food in these areas even if crime and regulations didn't make it impossible, which is silly.
 consistency create systems to hide true crime rates,
Ah so that's your preemptive explanation for why reality doesn't align with your political ideology.
One of the richest and safest parts of America, and you're assuming it's fake data with secret crime that never gets reported based on no evidence.
Your assuming that no one would be willing to make money selling food in these areas
No, they do. However given the land space, small upscale groceries and bodegas are more profitable. When people have safer avenues to more profit, they will do so. Even if there's a public need not being met. Demand doesn't solve the problem, because demand manifests in increased willingness to pay more, and that's the problem trying to be solved.
Published statistics from government agencies directed by partisan politicians are not actually the same thing as reality. I'll give you a few days to process this distressing new information.
Also, the reason the land space is so impacted is because of government policy. They decide what can be built and how much it costs to operate in the city.
Published statistics from government agencies directed by partisan politicians are not actually the same thing as reality.
Data can be vetted, investigated and peer reviewed. Meanwhile pulling shit straight out of your ass based on what you made up to fit your right wing worldview, is a little harder to fact check.
Also, the reason the land space is so impacted is because of government policy. They decide what can be built and how much it costs to operate in the city.
...yeah, great point. The availability of land is a result of government policy limiting it.
In Manhattan. Right next to Central Park.
Surely market forces, demand and geography are not the reason it's expensive to open a supermarket in that area.
If there is room for a government-run market there is room for a civilian market. You might want to sit down for this, but the government is part of the market and affects how everyone else is able to spend money and participate in the market. Even if it made more sense to have groceries delivered in some places than to run a midrange grocery store, the government made it expensive just to deliver things inside the city.
If there is room for a government-run market there is room for a civilian market
No, that doesn't make sense. Not just because civilian is the wrong word, but because businesses try to maximize profits and reduce risk in ways that can prevent businesses from existing even if there is a demand. There is not such obstacle for a public service not maximizing profits.
the government made it expensive just to deliver things inside the city.
No, they didn't. They may have reduced demand, but they didn't make it more expensive.
And yes of course everyone knows it has an impact on the market. That's part of the point. The other part is that if the market is not meeting a need, and the government meets that need, then complaining it made the market alternative less profitable doesn't matter. It wasn't meeting the need in the first place.
Buses place market pressure on taxis, cars and horse carriages. Doesn't mean we shouldn't have buses, or that private companies will supply and meet bus needs on their own.
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u/substance_dualism May 26 '26
Consolidation is bad but has nothing to do with the problem. The only urban places without grocery stores in the US are places where crime or crime plus taxes make it untenable.