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Why Can't a Black Owned Supermarket Survive in a Liberal Neighborhood ?

Posted by David Tatarowicz on July 30, 2008

Local Merchants

 I think it is interesting that Lena's on Capitol has closed its doors.

Before becoming Lena's it was a Jewel Food Store, and as such I shopped there quite a bit. 

 While shopping there, I saw lots of White Folks I knew from the East Side, Shorewood and Riverwest --- and liked the fact that there was a good mix of Black and White shoppers.

After becoming a Lena's, I shopped there a few times, but noticed that the Volume of Shoppers seemed to be going down.  By the time that Lena's decided to close, it seemed that the parking lot never had more than about a third of the cars that were there when it was a Jewel.

For a while I was recovering from a knee injury, and did very little shopping myself.   But once I was better able to get around,  I was shocked at going to Lena's and seeing so few shoppers there, and it seemed, many fewer White Shoppers than Jewel use to attract.

Questions that come to mind are:

 1) Did Lena's change the mix of items it sold significantly enough to affect the demographics of the shoppers.

2) Did the service level remain at least as good as when it was a Jewel.

3) Did White Folks from Riverwest, Shorewood and the East Side abandon it when it was acquired by Black Ownership.

WHAT DO  YOU THINK ? 

WHY DID LENA'S FAIL IN ONE OF THE MOST LIBERAL AREAS OF WISCONSIN ?

PLEASE LEAVE YOUR OPINIONS - COMMENTS - OR QUESTIONS BELOW !