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Bringing Major Grocers Downtown

Posted by: Christian Madera

4 November 2006 - 7:00am

The recent opening of Whole Foods in downtown Seattle highlights the challenges of attracting major grocery stores to the urban core.

Downtown Seattle is set to get its first major grocery store in decades -- to the cheers of many residents. The store's opening is a result of the area's growing population, but also likely some determination by the developer.

"One reason grocery stores require dense residential populations is that many operate on narrow margins, making it difficult to squeeze profits from thinly populated neighborhoods. Most downtown locations also carry hefty rents...Whole Foods' higher prices mean it can pay higher rent than some grocers, but probably not as high as the $30-per-square-foot and up being charged for street-level space in downtown Seattle"

Full Story: Downtown gets its own big grocery
Source: The Seattle Times, November 3, 2006
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All of that only scratches the surface of what's wrong with this study. The idea that complex urban development patterns and human behavior can be meaningfully studied according to one primary criteria — density — is wrong from the start.
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