An Oakland Citizen Speaks Out
Abel Macias, an Oakland citizen and supporter of People’s Grocery, recently wrote the following letter to the Oakland Tribune in response to a recent article about the possible entrance of Tesco’s Fresh & Easy into Oakland.
“I was very disappointed when reading the story on Fresh & Easy (11/13/07, Business Section). I don’t understand why a representative of the City of Oakland would be excited about the prospect of another outside million dollar corporation (F&E is a unit of Tesco the worlds third largest supermarket chain) coming into Oakland and draining wealth from the local economy. Keira Williams retail specialist with Oakland Economic Development Department states “It’s great, and in many ways it makes sense for Oakland”. How in the heck does this makes sense for Oakland????? Fresh & Easy is based in England remember? That means profits leave the local economy and go to fill the pockets of the owners of Fresh & Easy and unfortunately they don’t shop in Oakland.
What I find even more perplexing is why the city isn’t falling over itself to support, fund and make it a priority to make sure that a wonderful group like the People’s Grocery has a place to call home. The people of Oakland work, volunteer and benefit from the work the People’s Grocery is doing. Let’s make our dream a reality of having a place so they can finally have a place to sell non-packaged (Fresh & Easy packages a single eggplant?) locally grown and organic fruits and vegetables.
The city of Oakland needs to get on board and push the envelope to make sure that it makes the People’s Grocery a reality before Outsider Fresh & Easy comes into town.
People’s Grocery has a proven track record of years of work in Oakland. How long has Fresh & Easy been around? Let’s get our priorities straight city officials and quit making the rich richer and the poor continue to beg.”
