15thWardSTL.org
Site Navigation:
Please Log in or Register
Request New Password
Search the Site:
Advanced497 Trader Joe's Petition Letters Collected
Well, folks, the 15thWardSTL.org Trader Joe's Petition Drive is complete! Almost 500 letters were returned to me - special thanks to those people who got multiple people to sign and those who wrote their own letters.
This is what a stack of 500 letters look like:
Many people did not include a "mappable" address on their petition letters (note to self: next time put a specific address field on the petition). I entered all the addresses into the computer and mapped them. Here's the breakdown:
Downtown West 12 Lindenwood Park 12 Compton Heights 13 Holly Hills 17 South Hampton 18 Benton Park West 19 Benton Park 29 Shaw 34 The Gate District 37 Tower Grove East 37 Lafayette Square 58
And the Winner?
Tower Grove South - 82
All told, there were about 175 petition letters that didn't have an identifiable address.
Word from Trader Joe's is that they are "booked" with store openings until 2008. This is a little discouraging - does it mean this effort was meaningless? Probably not since it is unlikely that a new location would open by 2008 anyways. Now is the time to work at convincing Trader Joe's to consider a more urban location for the next "round".
As same-store sales numbers at the Brentwood location decline during 64/40 reconstruction, it is my hope that Trader Joe's will attempt to keep their City customers happy (and gain a whole lot of new customers) with an urban store.
Steve, kudos to you for taking the initiative (and time!) to put this together. I'm extremely pleased with the outcome of support -- 500 is great and should certainly make an impact! Grassroots efforts like these, even if they seemingly go unnoticed, most certainly do not and only go to further bring like-minded groups together. Can't wait to run into you in the isles at our (future) TJs! :)
-Christopher
Just a point of clarification as everyone talks about bringing in the 'neighborhood friendly' Trader Joes'.
They are owned by one of the world's largest grocery store companies, ALDI. So in fact Schnucks, Diebergs, and Shop N Save are 1000 times more local than Trader Joes.
Do any search for Aldi and Trader Joe's to find more information.
[15thWardSTL says: While it is certainly a good thing to keep local money local, locally-owned businesses are not necessarily more "neighborhood-friendly" on the urban design, employee relations, or ecological footprint metrics. Ownership is important, don't get me wrong, but it is also important to take the end result into consideration - ultimately what I see in terms of retail merchandise, employee relations, and corporate philosophy indicate that the Trader Joe's stores are not evil.
Local groceries were recently on the receiving end of a worker strike. Schnuck's stores are horrible neighbors from a design standpoint. Dierberg's won't even locate a store in the City. Lighting and temperature control in massive warehouse stores like all three "local" grocery chains consume huge amounts of energy. The DESCO development arm of Schnuck's was responsible for the the Century Building demolition.
My research indicates that the Trader Joe's business is owned by a trust established by one of the brothers who co-founded Aldi, not by the Aldi corporation itself http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_17/b3880016.htm)
In the urban retail food market, I think there is room for a variety of options that include large warehouse stores to boutique organics to 7-11's - Trader Joe's would help fill an apparent gap.]
For clarification, Trader Joes was started in the US and was later bought out by one of the two brothers that operate Aldi's throughout the world. Trader Joes has offices in California.
True, they are not local but they are also not part of a big corporate structure. Shop-n-save and Save-a-Lot, both "local" are owned by SuperValu in Minnesota.
- Steve Patterson/Urban Review
http://urbanreviewstl.com
Submitted by: bhenerey
I'm hoping the new grocery store on Morgan Ford can replace my weekly trek to Trader Joes. Most people probably aren't as fussy as my family, but we visit TJs, WholePaycheck, Schnucks(The Hill), and Shop N Save every week.
TJs has by far the best mix of cheap/organic/quality items.
WholeFoods is good for a weekend lunch (two slices of pizza for $5). Everything else is over priced, and much of their produce is from distant lands and I can't help but think of the 'oil miles'. Still, everything there 'looks' so good. We'll probably switch to the new high-end store coming to Lafayette Sq. Tax dollars go to the city afterall.
My wife won't go to SNS or the Schnucks on Grand, both of which are 3-4 blocks from our house. I only use SNS for things we run out of during the week, like bread. Schnucks on Grand ALWAYS has long lines, crappy produce, and a somewhat frightening atmosphere. It makes the trip the Hill worth the extra time.