Nov 3

Nov 3 Closed Doors

‘We’re Losing A Valuable Part of Our Community’

At-Large County Councilmember Jolene Ivey Held A Q&A with Prince George’s Suite regarding the closing of four Shoppers Food Warehouse grocery stores in Prince George’s and what it will mean now.

By Raoul Dennis

PHOTOGRAPHY: D.A. PHILLIPS // PRINCE GEORGE'S SUITE MAGAZINE & MEDIA

Ivey: We heard about this, and it felt like out of the blue for us, and it felt like out of the blue for our constituents that people weren't paying attention to the fact that Shopper's was pulling out almost half of their stores.

We still have five shoppers. If any of our grocery stores are having issues that they're considering closing, we'd like to hear from them long before they make that decision.

If there are things that we can do as a county to make things better, we want to do it because they're a valuable part of our community. We always hear about food deserts. We need to have the opportunity to have a full-service grocery store; it's important that we have that. We want to keep them here.

Suite Magazine: The council has other options as well with regard to other stores, other retailers. Do you have the sense that those stores are having any challenges as well? .

Ivey: I have heard of some of our smaller grocery stores. I think Save A Lot, for example, has had problems with retail theft. We have tried to work with them on that to increase the number of Prince George's police officers who are in the area and coming by to be helpful. We don't want to run out our grocery stores because there are a handful of people who are participating in this criminal activity. We want to make sure that the stores are well-run and safe and remain there for all the people who are trying to go in and buy groceries. I do know we've had a problem with Save A Lot. I had a meeting with them.

I think things are better there. Just that I haven't heard complaints from them lately, so I'm assuming things are better. I know that they had invested some money in some of their stores to upgrade them. That's one thing that we, unfortunately, have noticed about the Shoppers, at least the ones that are closing. This apparently has been a long-term plan that they could have shared with us because the investment hasn't been made in those stores. I need to go around and visit the others that remain and see what they're looking like because we want to make sure we catch it early.

Suite Magazine: The county has quite a few farms. Is there any effort in bringing some of those farmers closer to opportunities to serve our residents?

Ivey: Yes, that's a good idea. I know that some of them are urban farms that are already close to the residents and that they have regular locations where they sell. Of course, keep in mind that winter is coming and that changes things quite a bit for a farm in our area. We're not going to get the same kind of produce or the amounts of produce in November, December, January, or February. I'm not sure what we're going to get in June. It's just because that's how it is. I've also heard about other growing methods where they have a warehouse, and they have a system inside where it's aquaculture, where it's grown in water and soil is not involved. That's really interesting too.

Suite Magazine: That is very interesting.

Ivey: We certainly need more fruits and vegetables, full stop, but we also need everything else. Our urban farms aren't allowed to have chickens, for example. I think that's a change that could be helpful if you were allowed to have chickens, and we'd have eggs close by. We're not doing that right now but that's something that would make a lot of sense.