Local Lawmakers Battle Food Deserts

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.—There isn’t one grocery store in the nine square miles that cover the 73111 ZIP Code in northeast Oklahoma City, reports the Wall Street Journal. The last one closed over the summer.

But there are four dollar stores in the area, where 32% of the 11,000 residents live below the poverty level. “That ZIP Code is one of the unhealthiest in our city,” said Nikki Nice, Oklahoma City councilwoman. “Changing that starts with access to food.”

This week, the Oklahoma City Council will hold a public hearing on a plan that would require new retailers in the area to designate at least 500 square feet of interior space to fresh food, and the measure is expected to pass.

Using legislation to force changes at dollar stores is how some local governments are forcing retailers to address the lack of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat in “food deserts.” Cities are also trying to bring in fresh produce by creating zoning allowances or public financing to attract grocery stores.

Politicians and advocacy groups say that the presence of dollar stores in low-income neighborhoods eats into the profits of full-service groceries, which have higher overhead, and that it even causes some to close. In response, dollar stores claim they never intended to be full-service grocers and insist they provide shoppers with a good value.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a “food desert” is a low-income area where residents don’t live near grocers or other retailers carrying affordable and nutritious food. The USDA estimates that 39 million people, or 12.8% of Americans, live in food deserts. Residents of these neighborhoods often must travel significant distances to reach stores with fresh food, and many don’t have reliable means of transportation.

Food deserts have been a tough challenge for cities. The Obama Administration announced its Healthy Food Financing Initiative in 2010 to help deliver quality foods to communities with inadequate access. But as local governments have taken on the issue in recent years, they have redrawn the battle lines to include dollar stores.

Dollar stores are one of the few bricks-and-mortar stores expanding at a time when online sales have prompted many retailers to close. They’re fueled by low- and middle-income shoppers searching for value and convenience. Dollar Tree, which bought Family Dollar in 2015, and Dollar General dominate this landscape. The retailers went from operating just over 20,000 stores in 2010 to around 30,000 by the end of the decade. As reported in NACS Daily last week, Dollar General plans to open 1,000 new outlets in 2020.

Dollar General never intended to be a grocer, but every store offers its customers essentials, such as eggs, milk and bread, said spokeswoman Crystal Ghassemi. “We’re proud to serve these communities and to provide them an option,” she said. By January 2020, 650 Dollar General locations will sell produce, she added, which is about 4.1% of the company’s 16,000 stores.

Dollar Tree and Family Dollar offer a “broad range of basic essentials to families at low prices they can afford,” said a spokesman, and don’t intend to be grocery stores. 

The first known local initiative to block new discount stores from opening in proximity to others was in 2016 in Wyandotte County, a part of Kansas City, Kan. The ordinance required a special-use permit to build a small-box variety store within 10,000 feet of another. Three years later, Tulsa, Okla., passed a similar zoning law.

Tulsa’s ordinance restricts the opening of new dollar stores within a mile of another. To entice grocery stores into the neighborhood, the city also loosened parking requirements for any new supermarket.

Other cities followed suit. In May, the Oklahoma City council placed a 180-day moratorium on new small-box discount stores in the 73111 Zip Code. This month, the city council in Fort Worth, Texas, passed legislation blocking new dollar stores within two miles of another store. Similar rules were enacted in New Orleans, Louisiana and Mesquite, Texas, just outside of Dallas.

Earlier this year, Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Randall Woodfin created a “healthy food overlay district” as part of an initiative to address the city’s food deserts. Approximately 69% of the population lives in one. The three-pronged effort includes plans to limit dollar stores, loosen restrictions to invite new grocery stores and allow more farmers markets.

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