Brahm’s Blog

I’ll be speaking at the SF Greenfestival on a panel entitled “Transforming Urban Roadblocks to Health and Prosperity”. The panel will be held on Saturday November 10 from 1-2pm. My co-presenters will be Pam Pam Gaddies of San Francisco Peacemakers and Sudeep Rao of Literacy for Environmental Justice. Below is a description of the panel. Click here for a schedule of the Greenfestival.

Transforming Urban Roadblocks to Health and Prosperity:
Our urban inner-city communities hold many challenges to health, well-being and equity.Challenges such as environmental injustice, racism, lack of access to healthy food, and substandard educational opportunities disproportionately affect people of color in these neighborhoods. This forum highlights local community leaders whose innovative work and personal journeys are leading the way towards a more sustainable future for all people and future generations. Learn how you can help balance the scales.

The common food shopping experience nowadays entails going to a gigantic supermarket with a sprawling parking lot that offers an overwhelming array of products in dozens of categories that reach far beyond just food. On the one hand, these supermarkets are convenient because they offer a virtual one-stop-shop solution for anything you might need. But, on the other hand, if you’re looking to just buy a couple simple items, spend a few dollars and get out quickly, these giant stores are not convenient at all.

Let’s face it, shopping at large supermarkets takes a lot of time and energy. There are just so many aisle of products to search through and navigate. A shopper looking to spend a minimal amount of time in the store is almost guaranteed to be frustrated. Even if you know exactly where the item is you’re looking for and you quickly grab it and go, there’s a very high chance you’re going to get stuck in a long check out line and loose the time you saved.

People’s Grocery Market will be relatively small in size - about 7,000 to 10,000 square feet - compared to the typical supermarket - most supermarkets are between 30,000 - 55,000 square feet. This will make it much more convenient for people to shop who are looking to just buy a couple simple items, spend a few dollars or get out quickly.

Additionally, People’s Community Market will offer a simplified set of store departments of about 15,000 items (compared to supermarkets which offer 60,000+ items). With the exception of the personal care department, the store will also be exclusively food-focused and will not offer fancy product categories like household products, kitchenware, books and magazines, or boutique items. A simple focus will mean a simple shopping experience, which will support people who are looking for convenience and expedience.

People who want convenience tend to rarely go to supermarkets, for the reasons I’ve outlined above. But the desire for convenience should not drive people to shop at corner stores or fast food restaurants. People’s Grocery Market will be designed on the belief that shoppers deserve quality food without having to spend a lot time getting it.

Understanding how West Oakland consumers shop has led us to better understand that the appropriate size for a grocery store in an urban area is smaller than what is common to supermarkets in suburban areas.

Our experience in West Oakland has taught us that many people spend smaller amounts per purchase than average purchase sizes in suburban supermarkets. This smaller purchase size is because of three primary reasons: 1) people have a more limited amount of cash on hand 2) are looking for basic food ingredients for their household and 3) often carry their purchases because they are traveling by foot or by bus.

One result of smaller purchase sizes is that people tend to go to stores much more frequently, sometimes as high as 3 - 4 times a week. This is partly how they manage limited dollars from week to week. Frequent visits also offer a social experience, which I will address in a separate post.

People’s Grocery Market will cater to frequent shopping by being smaller in size and focusing on a basic basket of products that a household uses regularly: produce, grocery and bulk. We’ll offer some deli and personal care products as amenities, but we won’t carry items that are purchased on a very infrequent basis and take up lots of shelf space. A simple and focused offer will enable shoppers to get familiar with what we carry. It will also enable our staff to have more time to serve our shoppers, build relationships with them and provide education about healthy and fresh food selections.

It has always been our dream to open a unique grocery store in West Oakland. This dream was where the name People’s Grocery came from. Early on, when we realized we weren’t ready for such a large project, we decided to create a nonprofit that could offer services and programs to the community and, by doing so, could provide us with the elements needed to open a store.

After five years, we’ve come full circle. We’re working hard on creating a food retail business that brings healthy and fresh foods to the inner-city. It will be called People’s Grocery Market and will build on the experience and community relationships we have cultivated in the last five years. Our goal is to reframe the role of a grocery store in a community as a health service and education model. Our aim is to create an inspiring shopping experience in a community-oriented and culturally-diverse space that connects food to health, community and culture.

People’s Grocery Market will be a uniquely urban company and will operate from a core set of values such as social justice, community empowerment, multiculturalism, democracy and supporting small farmers in our local food system. People’s Grocery Market will offer affordable prices for healthy and fresh foods, with an emphasis on local, natural and ethnic food products. Our store will also offer special ways for using food stamps, as well as other discount programs, so that low-income families can have access to the good, healthy food.

People’s Grocery Market will also offer lots of education programs and community events to engage people of all ages and backgrounds. Many of these programs will be based on the work that People’s Grocery has already been doing in nutrition education, outreach and events organizing. Finally, People’s Grocery Market will be a worker-owned business to offer its workers the opportunity to become business owners and have greater control over their income and benefits, as well as how the profits are shared. A chance to be an owner will offer many of the workers a chance to gain a financial foothold that may not otherwise be available to them and their families.

There is much more to share and tell about this venture, including the unique collaboration that the store will have with our nonprofit, it’s partnerships with Rainbow Grocery Cooperative, Veritable Vegetable, the Growers Collaborative and others, and the nutrition education programs that will be offered in the store. Please keep an eye on my blog and, eventually, our entire website for more about this venture.

Bruce Springsteen, the rock star, also known as “the Boss”, features a community nonprofit as a beneficiary for each of his concerts. The nonprofit is given concert tickets to auction off, has a table at the concert and collects donations from fans. Bruce also makes a short pitch for the organization on stage.

Bruce is having a concert in Oakland at the Oracle Arena on Friday October 26, 2007 and People’s Grocery has been selected as the beneficiary. This is a great opportunity for us to gain some exposure and funding.

Bruce and his agent, John Landau Management, have given People’s Grocery concert tickets to auction off. The proceeds from the auction will support People’s Grocery’s food security, nutrition education and youth development programs in the West Oakland community.

We are auctioning two pairs of tickets. These tickets are for the First Tier (Loge) directly above the floor, in the first five rows. However, the auction winners may also request GA tickets (The Pit).

The auction will be held from October 8, 2007 – October 21, 2007. Each pair will go to the highest bidders. The average price for First Tier tickets for Bruce’s October 26 concert is presently $200. So we will be starting the auction off at $400 for a pair of tickets. If you wish to put in a bid for a pair of tickets you can either 1) post a response to this blog post with your bid amount or 2) email brahm@peoplesgrocery.org with your bid amount. We will keep anyone who submits a bid updated on the status of the ongoing bidding process.

This is definitely a great value: you get really good seats at a fantastic concert and while also supporting a really good cause at the same time.