Why would Whole Foods—a company colloquially known as "Whole Paycheck" and as a staple of wealthy neighborhoods—open an 18,000-square-foot location in one of the most impoverished parts of Chicago?
According to Emily Badger, "last year, to the disbelief of many, [Whole Foods] announced plans to open a store in 2016 here [in Englewood], in one of Chicago’s most economically depressed neighborhoods."
Reasonable people might assume that the store's opening is a sign of Englewood's eventual gentrification. According to the article, however, "that is not likely to happen in Englewood, at least not any time soon. Whole Foods is planning to sell olive oil and snap peas to the people who live here now. It is also planning, in the process, to make money."
Badger goes on to describe a bit more about the neighborhood's past, present, and the strategic decision to site the Whole Foods market in the hopes of catalyzing the future of the neighborhood. The plan for the development, for instance, includes the help of an urban farm a mile-and-a-half away, run by a nonprofit group called Growing Home.
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