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How big grocers have been limiting food access in California · Best of: Features

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  How big grocers have been limiting food access in California. Written by
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  Angelica Cenabria. This article is being read by an automated voice generated
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  by Everlett. We often hear that corporate food chains are enormous because
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  it makes them more efficiency?
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  How true is this? In an age where Americans increasingly buy groceries
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  with pay later plans, food chain workers barely make ends meet, and
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  executives get richer, where is the efficiency? In California, Albertson's Companies maintains
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  nearly six hundred stores across the state, over one hundred more stores
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  than Costco and Walmart combined, making it the top dog. If the
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  idea of Albertson's dominance is foreign to you, be aware that grocery
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  chains like Safeway, Vaughns Pavilions, and more than a dozen others are
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  all owned by Albertson's companies. As Albertsons has gotten larger and more
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  powerful, its growth has backfired on California communities. Corporate consolidation has steadily
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  increased over the past forty years, pushing small independent businesses into the
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  minority and consolidated grocers into dominance. As Albertsons protects its profits and
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  gears up to close a handful of California locations, which would lower
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  its operating costs, communities might not get a chance to see these
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  grocery store replaced. In addition to lease squatting, uncovered by S. F.
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  Gates investigation on zombie stores, companies like Albertsons can maintain their power
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  by blocking competitors through the use of grocer. Restrictive covenants, stipulations written
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  into deed and lease agreements that limits or completely prohibit the operation
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  of a grocery store on a piece of property. As they sell
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  a property, they write the restriction into the deed, so the next
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  owner is unable to lease the space to a grocer. This practice
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  effectively obstructs a community's access to food and limits its autonomy. However,
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  finding out whether a piece of land is impacted by a grocery
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  restrictive covenant is tricky. Restrictive covenants on retail properties are often not
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  publicly accessible in California. Once communities realize what is happening, they're furious
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  and often organized to fight back. The Shame on Safeway campaign, launched
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  by the Food Empowerment Project protested a restrictive covenant than Safeway placed
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  on one of its prior locations in Valayo, effectively banning a competitor
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  grocer from operating in that building for fifteen years. Entire childhoods went
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  by without families having a nearby grocery store. After sending several letters
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  to its parent company Albertsons, about how the restrictive covenant was harming
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  the community, the Food Empowerment Project received nothing substantial in response, other
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  than this practice is sometimes necessary. Different town, different year, and the
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  same playbook is being used. David Renkert, a brewery owner and the
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  lead organizer of Friends of Tahoe City, was looking to buy an
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  old Safeway building in Tahoe City. During negotiations he was asked by
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  Albertsons, which you'll recall is the parent company of Safeway, if he
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  would agree to a grocery restrictive covenant on the property. Rankert did
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  the math. The building had the freezers, fridges, and piping required for
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  a grocery store. Blocking another grocer from operating in a grocery building
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  would severely lower the economic opportunity of the space, diminishing the property's
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  value. He ultimately did not purchase they building, and Albertson ceased communications
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  with him. After learning of Albertson's similar behavior in towns like Bishop
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  and Bellingham, Washington, Rankert began organizing his community through Friends of Tahoe
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  City, which allowed him to push back against what he saw as
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  Albertson's obstruction of food access. Due to the town's remaining safeway being
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  constantly running out of fresh produce and other food, he told me
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  he saw residents have to drive out of town, sometimes an hour
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  to get what they need. Why does a company like Albertsons write
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  these grocery restrictive covenants? Only a business with extensive market power benefits
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  from these kinds of restrictions. By close airstorms strategically funneling consumers to
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  other branches, giant grocers can hike up prices, serve low quality foods,
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  block competitors from operating at prior locations, and pay their workers lower
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  wages. Blocking and maintaining control over competition gives large grocers more price
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  setting power. This power is taken from the consumer, limiting their choice
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  of where to shop. It's not just Tahoe City and Valayo that
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  have been dealing with this. Towns like Chula Vista and Eureka have
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  also stood at the mercy of Albertson's power, but legislators have taken
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  note. While current federal antitrust law falls short in meeting the needs
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  of our current and evolving economy, here in California, Assembly Bill eighteen
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  fifty seven, authored by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguilar Curry, aims to prohibit and
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  nullify grocery restrictions that create food deserts. Assembly Bill seventeen seventy six,
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  or the Compete Act, would also begin to address Albertson's power over
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  communities by updating California law to include single firms as unlawful actors
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  when engaging in manipulative and anti competitive behavior. Lawmakers passed both of
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  these bills this session, and the bills await their fate in the
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  Governor's Office. The frontline fight for dignified food access is alive and
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  well, but it's not over until we reckon with the true role
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  that corporate grocers play in food access. Angelica Sanabria is the Narrative
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  and Network Coordinator at the California Food and Farming Network.