A Comprehensive Report on Food Supply Options
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Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Urban and Regional Studies and Planning Reports Urban and Regional Studies and Planning 2019 Increasing Access to Food: A Comprehensive Report on Food Supply Options URSP 666 (Commercial Revitalization) Logan Ashby Virginia Commonwealth University Chesley De Leon Virginia Commonwealth University See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/murp_reports Part of the Urban Studies and Planning Commons ©2019 Virginia Commonwealth University Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/murp_reports/3 This Research Report is brought to you for free and open access by the Urban and Regional Studies and Planning at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Urban and Regional Studies and Planning Reports by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authors URSP 666 (Commercial Revitalization), Logan Ashby, Chesley De Leon, Vegas Krane, Eric Mai, Shekinah Mitchell, Michael Nixon-Garrison, Gabriella Pino-Moreno, Elizabeth Roderick, Chloe Rote, Jeff Smith, Charlie Wilson, Will Wilson, and Hunter Wood This research report is available at VCU Scholars Compass: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/murp_reports/3 Increasing Access to Food: A Comprehensive Report on Food Supply Options Fall 2019 Urban Commercial Revitalization Class Master of Urban and Regional Planning Program L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, Virginia Commonwealth University 12/9/2019 Increasing Access to Food: A Comprehensive Report on Food Supply Options By The Fall 2019 Urban Commercial Revitalization Class Master of Urban and Regional Planning Program L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs Virginia Commonwealth University December 9, 2019 Dr. John Accordino, PhD, FAICP Logan Ashby Chesley De Leon Vegas Krane Eric Mai Shekinah Mitchell Michael Nixon-Garrison Gabriella Pino-Moreno Elizabeth Roderick Chloe Rote Jeff Smith Charlie Wilson Will Wilson Hunter Wood COPYRIGHT © 2019 Virginia Commonwealth University 1 Contents INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 3 Big Box Supermarkets ............................................................................................................. 5 Convenience Stores ............................................................................................................... 18 Convenience Stores without Gasoline ................................................................................. 27 Discount Variety Stores ......................................................................................................... 41 Farmers Markets ..................................................................................................................... 49 Food Banks ............................................................................................................................. 60 Grocery Cooperatives ............................................................................................................ 71 Franchise/Alliance Grocery Stores ....................................................................................... 80 General/Country Stores .......................................................................................................... 87 Large Supermarkets/Small Format Franchise Stores ....................................................... 104 Mobile Markets/Grocery Stores ........................................................................................... 114 Small Format Discount Grocers .......................................................................................... 141 Small Independent Grocery Stores ..................................................................................... 149 2 INTRODUCTION Access to food is one of the most important aspects of a healthy, sustainable community. Grocery stores and other suppliers can serve as an economic anchor and provide social benefits to communities. Unfortunately, many communities do not have convenient and/or affordable access to grocery items, particularly fresh produce. As part of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Fall 2019 graduate course on Urban and Commercial Revitalization, class members researched 13 retail and other food access options, which are described in this report. Each chapter covers a food access option and provides basic information that will be useful to individuals, organizations, or government agencies that wish to attract and/or develop grocery operations in their communities. The information resources and bibliographies at the end of each chapter are pathfinders for those who wish to perform additional research. The grocery supplier chapters are: Big Box Supermarkets (Walmart Supercenters) Franchise/Alliance Grocery Stores Convenience Stores with Gasoline General/Country Stores Convenience Stores without Gasoline Large Supermarkets/Small Format Franchise Discount Variety Stores (Dollar General) Stores Farmers Markets Mobile Markets/Grocery Stores Food Banks Small Format Discount Grocery Stores Food Co-operatives Small Independent Grocery Stores Each grocery supplier chapter is organized in the following format: Organization Type of Store Basic Business Model Legal Form Management/Governance Structure Funding Strategy Number of Workers Size of Operation/Square Footage of Stores Average Number of Customers/Day Customer Demographics and Characteristics 3 Operations Type of Product Selection/Offering Regional Partners Wholesaler/s Institutional Supporters Other Goods & Services Social Services Forms of Advertising Locations and Physical Attributes Typical Locations Co-location Tendencies Number of Residents and Workers in Market Area Customer Access to Stores (walk, bike, car, etc.) Parking Lots and Number of Parking Spaces Community Contributions Cases Which Stores Succeed? Which Stores Don’t Succeed? New and Testing Formats and Services Useful Information Sources Bibliography 4 Big Box Supermarkets (Walmart Supercenters) By Jeff Smith ORGANIZATION Type of Store: Big Box Stores (that have full grocery offerings) “Walmart” Basic Business Model: EDLP, EDLC: Everyday low price, everyday low cost Walmart describes their business model in the following manner: Our strategy is to lead on price, invest to differentiate on access, be competitive on assortment and deliver a great experience. Leading on price is designed to earn the trust of our customers every day by providing a broad assortment of quality merchandise and services at everyday low prices ("EDLP"). EDLP is our pricing philosophy under which we price items at a low price every day so our customers trust that our prices will not change under frequent promotional activity. Price leadership is core to who we are. Everyday low cost ("EDLC") is our commitment to control expenses so those cost savings can be passed along to our customers. Our omni-channel presence provides customers access to our broad assortment anytime and anywhere. We strive to give our customers and members a great digital and physical shopping experience (Walmart Inc., 2018). Legal Form: Publicly Traded Company/Corporation: On the NYSE (1972) Management/Governance Structure: Jessica Lombardo in her 2019 article titled Walmart: Organizational Structure & Organizational Culture described their management and governance structure in the following manner: Walmart has a hierarchical functional organizational structure. This structure has two features: hierarchy and function-based definition. The hierarchy feature pertains to the vertical lines of command and authority throughout the organizational structure. For example, except for the CEO, every employee has a direct superior. Directives and mandates coming from the top levels of the company’s management are implemented through middle managers down to the rank- and-file employees in Walmart stores. On the other hand, the function-based definition feature of the company’s corporate structure involves groups of employees fulfilling certain functions. For example, Walmart has a department for the function of human resource management. The company also has a department for the function of information technology, and another department for the function of marketing. These are just some of the numerous function-based departments in Walmart’s organizational structure (Jessica Lombardo, 2019). 6 Funding Strategy: N/A: Corporate Structure Number of Workers: This depends on the store volume. Stores are coded by their volume which in turn determines how many team members are needed to run an effective workload. This can also fluctuate depending on availabilities and coverages needed. With that said, it could average between 120 up to 400 team members (sales of $200k to $300k/associate) (Kelly Benvenuto, 2016). Size of Operation/Square Footage of Stores: There are 3,561 Super Centers with a total of 632,479K SF. Average/Store = 178,000. Range for Super Center is 69,000 SF to 260,000SF (Jessica Lombardo, 2019). Average Number of Customers/Day: Traffic volumes vary greatly, but as a statistical average, about 3500-4000 customers a day shop at a Supercenter. Many stores are in the 10,000+ range (Ayers, 2019). Customer Demographics & Characteristics: The average Walmart shopper is a white, 51-year-old female with an annual household income of $56,482. Walmart shoppers come primarily from the low and