Here is my recommended solution to Detroit's grocery store problem, which I made back in 2007 when the problem was initially reported:
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Regarding the problem of national supermarket chains that are increasingly threatened in Black urban areas, I have a recommended solution.
The franchise owners could modify the old Service Merchandise retail store model to give their grocery stores in predominantly Black cities a chance to become profitable.
The proposed changes would include significant security upgrades. The general idea would be to provide patrons with pictures of the store's products in mini-catalogs, as opposed to allowing patrons to actually enter the stores, handle the merchandise, or interact unsupervised with other shoppers or the store's employees.
Here's how the plan would work in Detroit, Michigan:
First, hire Wells Fargo to design and build a fortified concrete warehouse with two controlled entrances; one for patrons and the other for incoming goods and supplies.
Then, allow 20 patrons at a time to enter the secure, heavily-guarded waiting area. The waiting area would include a watch guard tower on a platform behind bullet-proof glass situated above the patrons.
Contract the services of Wells Fargo to handle all security, and charge patrons a nominal 5 percent security fee to help defray security costs.
Patrons who enter the waiting area must pass through an airport-style search point, with strict limitations on what they are allowed to carry in.
Once in the waiting area, the patrons would submit a printed order form to an employee through a slot in a bullet-proof window. Employees in the secure warehouse would fill the order and return it to a guarded pickup zone. After the patron pays, a rotating carousel would turn and the bagged goods would vend out for pickup.
The order process could even be simplified and expedited by using a grouped-numbering system like fast-food restaurants use to expedite common, repeat orders (e.g., a "Number 4" may be used to order a bottle of wine, a bucket of fried chicken, a frozen box of chitlins, a box of double-stuff oreos, a three-liter coke, a super-sized bag of potato chips, and a tube of Mammy Rufus' Afro-Hair Weave, Sheen, and Scalp Tonic).
All employees would be subjected to full security searches when reporting to work, leaving for lunch, and at the end of their shifts.
A team of Wells Fargo S.W.A.T. snipers would be strategically positioned on all of the area's rooftops to secure the store's delivery entrance for all supply and delivery vehicles.
Now, I realize that my idea seems somewhat extreme, but the pressure is on in Detroit and other similar places for outside-the-box solutions that work.
When I go to the grocery store or any retail store, I park, enter the structure peacefully, find the things I want or need, pay in good faith, and leave. When I exit, I leave the store, its employees, and my fellow patrons just as I found them. I behave in the same way when I go to a public function or out to eat with my wife, as I am sure you and everyone else who is reading this does. Behaving in a civilized way is natural for some people, but for others it is impossible.
The "trusting people" model works where I live and probably where you live, but it obviously doesn't work for everyone, everywhere.
Ergo, if we're going to have supermarkets in places where people cannot behave long enough to engage in the simple act of commerce, a different model is needed.
Of course, my proposal is just a rough idea. The idea could be made to appear more respectful if, for example, the concrete waiting room were painted and hosed-down regularly, and if music were piped in.
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Okay, I proposed that back in 2007, Wayne.
In 2009, here is what was ultimately implemented...
Armed Paramilitaries Guarding Detroit Grocery Stores
huffingtonpost.com
excerpt:
On a side street in an old industrial neighborhood, a delivery man stacks a dolly of goods outside a store. Ten feet away stands another man clad in military fatigues, combat boots and what appears to be a flak jacket. He looks straight out of Baghdad. But this isn't Iraq. It's southeast Detroit, and he's there to guard the groceries.
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Well, what do you know? It may not be perfect, but it's a start! -g- |
