Organizing is Essential for Corner Stores
By Kateri Gutierrez
When micro-business owners organize, organizations like Inclusive Action can provide resources more quickly and advocate more efficiently. What our organization has learned over the last 4 years running COMPRA Foods, our purchasing cooperative that delivered affordable produce to corner stores throughout Los Angeles is this: corner stores are the most accessible source of goods in food desert communities; yet, these businesses are also some of the most vulnerable. Therefore, we must help them organize their collective power to ensure they can stay open during and after this pandemic and continue to serve their communities.
As manager of COMPRA Foods, I checked in with the corner store and mini-market owners in our network and prepared them to introduce fruits and vegetables, improve their marketing, and develop options for healthier food. As I built relationships with these entrepreneurs, I learned that, even before this health and economic crisis, they were struggling to pay rent, maintain a fully stocked store, and knew no other corner store owners to rely on personally.
It is clear that corner stores need support, and I realize that they lack an organized movement to support each other. Hundreds of corner stores are the closest sources of food and nutrition for thousands of some of the city’s most financially vulnerable residents. Still, these entrepreneurs need empowerment to organize, purchase, and advocate for their businesses to survive the challenges they face.
When Mayor Garcetti first issued the “Safer at Home” order, grocery stores experienced an influx of customers. You could usually expect a line out the door or around the block any time of day. When grocery stores were out of stock on popular items, customers ran to their nearest corner store or mini market to meet their needs. But despite this recent uptick in clientele, corner stores, and mini markets still face a variety of issues, many of which are exacerbated during these unprecedented times. These include:
Lack of Access to Affordable High-demand Products. Corner stores are struggling to source affordable fruits and vegetables to sell to their communities. They are experiencing an increased demand for dry goods, toilet paper, and other non-perishable items. Still, they experience tougher purchasing competition from larger retailers, who are often prioritized by wholesalers. This makes it more challenging for corner stores and mini-marts to restock their stores.
Wholesalers’ Failure to Sell in Smaller Quantities. As the COVID-19 Crisis rages on, wholesale vendors are donating excess inventory to food banks, but have not decreased their order minimums to ensure that smaller grocers can access affordable produce to re-sell. Instead of shutting corner stores out of the market, vendors have an opportunity to increase their customer base by catering to the needs of corner stores and mini-marts. This would have the dual impact of helping small grocers maintain well-stocked stores and helping to ensure that food desert communities have local businesses from which they can buy the essentials.
WIC & EBT Requirements Are Difficult to Meet. Any store that accepts WIC and EBT payments must ensure that they stock up on approved WIC and EBT goods, but if corner stores have difficulty purchasing goods competitively, they risk losing the opportunity to accept such payments. This means that these requirements also impact low-income mothers and residents who may rely on their local corner stores to feed their families.
Corner stores can be found in virtually every neighborhood and sprinkled along every major street in Los Angeles. Organizing the collective power of the hundreds of corner stores in the city could have a dramatic impact on the way that the issues listed above are addressed.
We’ve seen organizing success with our work on the Los Angeles Street Vendor Campaign. Working with our partners, we connected street vendors to the public process, and together we not only legalized street vending in LA but decriminalized vending throughout California. The LA Street Vendor Campaign accomplished an incredible feat. It organized a previously ignored population, empowered them, and increased their negotiating power. I think it is time for corner stores to do the same.
Many types of businesses benefit from having associations (think apartment owners, retail grocers, and chain restaurants). These associations serve their constituents by making their needs heard and their power felt. A Corner Store Association could do the same for the corner stores and mini-marts. A corner store association would help this sector of entrepreneurs work collaboratively to increase their purchasing power, demand visibility, and negotiate for an improvement in the ways they can conduct business and serve their communities.