Supermarket Shutterings Leave Food Deserts

Rural food retailers are closing their doors because of the economy.

June 28, 2010

TURKEY, Texas - More and more food retailers are closing their doors, especially in rural areas, the Associated Press reports. For example, Craig Chancellor was forced to close the Turkey General Store late last year because he had more expenses, like salaries and utilities, than profits. When he left, the town of Turkey had no grocery store.

"It didn??t play the way we wanted it to," said Chancellor. "People understand why we had to do it, but they hate it."

Rural stores are struggling, a long-term trend that seems to be accelerating, researchers said. High operating costs coupled with competition from nearby supercenters have spelled disaster for the smaller shops. A Kansas State University survey found that more than 38 percent of grocery retailers in Kansas towns with populations of under 2,500 went out of business between 2006 and 2009.

When a grocer closes, rural communities begin to decline, said Kathie Starkweather with the Center for Rural Affairs. "If you start to lose something key like a grocery store, people aren??t likely to move there if they don??t have access to food," she said.

However, the flip side to that is many residents often drive to Wal-Mart or Target for groceries rather than shop the local supermarket because of the bigger stores?? larger inventory and lower cost.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture labels such areas with a dearth of affordable and nutritious groceries "food deserts," which accounted for 13 percent of U.S. counties a decade ago.

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