UPDATED: Dec. 6, 2018 at 1:08 a.m.

Local grocery store Tops Market closed down its South Salina Street location.

The grocery retail market may seem to play a small part in the country’s economy, but Syracuse residents must realize that the decline of grocery stores and accessibility to healthier foods have major implications on the stability of communities.

Retailers such as Walmart or Target are taking complete control of the market, and urban communities are noticing a lack of easy access to supermarkets. Food Trust estimates that 23.5 million Americans do not have access to a supermarket within a mile of their home.

Blessing Emole | Digital Design Editor

“Syracuse has a suburban feel in an urban area,” said Paul Nojaim, former owner of Nojaim Brothers Supermarket, which was in the city.

Despite attractive low prices and price-matching policies, it’s difficult and expensive for people living in cities to get to large retailers like Target and Walmart that tend to be established in suburban areas. This leaves many without any other option but to reach for unhealthy foods found in corner stores and fast food restaurants that have found their niche in food deserts.

Blessing Emole | Digital Design Editor

But not just the city’s health is at stake. Grocery stores function as a community staple.

Emanuel Carter Jr., a professor at SUNY-ESF, said that grocery stores provide a sense of urban community, as well as function as a place where people tend to meet their neighbor.

The demise of large supermarkets should make small scale stores such as Rite Aid a success. That’s not the case, though. A local Rite Aid just announced that it was closing in downtown Syracuse.

This has organizations around the city rushing to cure the growing epidemic of food access.

The Allyn Family Foundation has finalized an idea to have a public market at 484 S. Salina St. that will include a grocery vendor with diverse dining options and ingredients for home cooking, according to Heather Schroeder, director of economic development for the Downtown Committee of Syracuse.

The collapse of local grocery has created a market need for healthy yet inexpensive and easily accessible food to which all humans are entitled. I want to challenge aspiring entrepreneurs and those interested in civic engagement to find solutions to meet this need in the Syracuse market.

Jack Ramza is a freshman Whitman-Newhouse major. His column runs biweekly. He can be reached at jjramza@syr.edu.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the Tops Market on South Salina Street location was said to be still open. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on December 2, 2018 at 7:58 pm