Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has announced his intention of launching a government-owned grocery store for "racial justice."
The mayor's proposal involves partnership with a far-left non-profit organization called the Economic Security Project.
In a press release, Johnson's office said, "Moreover, food access and security link directly to environmental and racial justice. 37% of Black residents and 29% of Latine/x residents are food insecure, compared to 19% of residents overall. Exploring innovative initiatives to support food retail is part of the Johnson administration’s broader commitment to correcting systems and practices that have created these inequities."
“All Chicagoans deserve to live near convenient, affordable, healthy grocery options. We know access to grocery stores is already a challenge for many residents, especially on the South and West sides,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson. “A better, stronger, safer future is one where our youth and our communities have access to the tools and resources they need to thrive. My administration is committed to advancing innovative, whole-of-government approaches to address these inequities. I am proud to work alongside partners to take this step in envisioning what a municipally owned grocery store in Chicago could look like.”
If successful, Johnson's planned government grocery store would be the largest of its kind in the United States.
“The City of Chicago is reimagining the role government can play in our lives by exploring a public option for grocery stores via a municipally owned grocery store and market,” said Ameya Pawar, Senior Advisor at Economic Security Project. “Not dissimilar from the way a library or the postal service operates, a public option offers economic choice and power to communities. A City-owned grocery store in the South or West side of Chicago would be a viable way to restore access to healthy food in areas that have suffered from historic and systemic disinvestment."
The Daily Wire noted that rising crime across the city has prompted corporate grocery stores like Whole Foods and Walmart to leave Chicago.
"Walmart announced the closure of four stores in Chicago’s South and West Side neighborhoods back in April, and said it was due to a lack of profitability going back 17 years when the company first opened in Chicago," the report stated.
"These stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years," Walmart said in its press release at the time.
