A move to recreate the Soviet Gastronom

Chicago could fill food desert with three-store network of city-owned grocery stores, consultant says
The new report could serve as a road map for Mayor Brandon Johnson to make Chicago the first big city in the nation to enter a competitive and volatile grocery market with razor-thin profit margins. So far, only St. Paul, Kansas and Baldwin, Fla. have done so.
By Fran Spielman





Grocery stores closing on Chicago’s South and West Sides — like this shuttered Aldi at 7627 S. Ashland Ave., shown in 2022 — have left huge swaths of the city without easy access to healthy food or fresh produce.

Chicago could fill its “food desert” with a three-store network of city-owned grocery stores for an upfront cost of $26.7 million, a consultant has concluded.

The new 200-page report from HR&A concludes Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to open a city-owned grocery store is “necessary, feasible and implementable.”

Necessary because volatility in the grocery market has led to a wave of consolidations and store closings concentrated in South and West Side neighborhoods.

Feasible because the city need not become a store operator, but instead could act to limit the risk for a private operator.

Implementable because the city’s “significant land ownership, funding tools,” storage and “community engagement capacity” makes it “well-positioned” to provide “support and resources to an established operator.”

The report could serve as a road map for Chicago to become the first large U.S. city to enter a competitive, volatile grocery market known for razor-thin profit margins. So far, only two municipalities have taken the plunge, according to the report: St. Paul, Kansas, and Baldwin, Florida.

“In the absence of private sector action or commitment to provide sustainable grocery options, it is necessary for the city to play a role in creating and sustaining grocery services in neighborhoods that lack grocery access,” the report states.

“There is potential for the city to lead a feasible grocery model that earns operating profit in neighborhoods with inequitable access to food. … While the city’s optimal role may not be in serving as a store operator, it can play an effective role as a partner that can provide resources and programming to support operations” by securing capital financing, providing operating support, and facilitating training and workforce development, the report states.