What is it about D.C. and grocery stores? People have to eat, after all. And given the fact that many District residents do the bulk of their shopping in Maryland and Virginia because of the dearth of grocery stores in their own communities, the city’s anti-grocery mentality makes no sense. This curious phenomena includes not only Mayor Vincent Gray’s recent ham-handed attempts to strong-arm Walmart after the giant retailer announced last November that it planned to open four urban-scale stores in underserved areas of the city. Residents of upscale Cleveland Park have also been fighting efforts to modernize the cramped 1950s-era Giant on Wisconsin Avenue for more than a decade.
Walmart has not requested any subsidies, zoning changes or tax abatements from the city. Its four new stores would all be located in areas where grocery stores are few and far between, replacing a gravel parking lot, a vacant car dealership, dilapidated warehouses, a liquor store and a former public housing complex. They would provide low-cost shopping options in Wards 4, 5, 6 and 7 and create 1,200 new jobs in neighborhoods where unemployment is twice the national average.
