{"id":3067,"date":"2011-01-11T01:12:47","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T06:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=3067"},"modified":"2011-01-11T01:21:45","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T06:21:45","slug":"columbia-food-fresh-market-31-december-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=3067","title":{"rendered":"Columbia Food Fresh Market, 2016 Harden Street: 31 December 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I hardly ever drive down this stretch of Harden Street, so sometime last summer, I saw this place for the first time. My reaction was \"Huh. Had no idea that was here -- looks pretty nice.\"<\/p>\n

I think if I had read these stories from WIS<\/a> and The State<\/a> about the store opening on 14 November 2008, I might have had another reaction, like \"Hmm, better take some pictures now..\".<\/p>\n

That's because, frankly, they show all the signs of a well intentioned Bad Idea<\/i> about to be put into practice. In particular:<\/p>\n

\nThe housing authority tried to recruit a grocery store to the area for nearly five years. It courted large grocery store chains that already had a presence in the Midlands but couldn\u2019t find anyone interested, Walker said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That should have been a pretty big hint right there that the commercial prospects weren't that good. There's also this:<\/p>\n

\nPlus, the housing authority\u2019s shopping plaza offers a smaller space than what most chains seek for new stores, Walker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the big chains that we have gone to want 30,000 to 40,000 square feet,\u201d he said. \u201cOur whole shopping center isn\u2019t that big.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Little IGA-type stores can be successful in small towns and rural areas, but not, I think, a mile from a full-sized Food Lion<\/i>..<\/p>\n

The State article noting the passing of the store<\/a> also mentions that the pharmacy listed on the roadside marquee is also already gone:<\/p>\n

\nA drugstore in the shopping plaza closed earlier this year after the sole pharmacist moved to Louisville, Ky.,\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There's also this gem<\/p>\n

\nThe store had been a source of pride for Columbia City Council and the Columbia Housing Authority, two public bodies that worked hard to recruit a grocery to the neighborhood near the heart of downtown Columbia.<\/p>\n

But the store became another victim of the Great Recession and was not making a profit, said Gilbert Walker, executive director of the Columbia Housing Authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grocery store business is a tough business, especially when you don\u2019t have a name brand,\u201d Walker said.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well then, perhaps it was a bad idea to open one?<\/p>\n

I don't want to sound too testy here, so let me be clear -- I'm sorry for the people who lost their jobs, and for the nearby residents who lost a grocery store -- that doesn't mean it was a good idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hardly ever drive down this stretch of Harden Street, so sometime last summer, I saw this place for the first time. My reaction was \"Huh. Had no idea that was here -- looks pretty nice.\" I think if I had read these stories from WIS and The State about the store opening on 14 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[469,23,122,4],"class_list":["post-3067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-celia-saxon-center","tag-grocery","tag-harden-street","tag-stores"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}