Food for Thought

The NY Times' City Room Blog is reporting on the role that rising food prices are playing in driving up the inflation rate in NYC: "Driven by rising prices of milk, bread and other groceries, the inflation rate in the New York metropolitan area rose in the last year at its second-fastest pace in more than 17 years, according to the federal Department of Labor."

What this means is that the phenomenon of disappearing supermarkets takes on an additional urgency. The loss of a neighborhood supermarket means that the local are forced to shop for food at more expensive delis, bodegas or drug stores. Or, travel longer distances to find a reasonably priced supermarket.

The rising box store situation that we remarked on yesterday, only exacerbates a crisis situation-as neighborhoods are being slowly abandoned by local markets. If the Bloomberg Administration is really serious about stemming the erosion, than it will need to step up in a major way and demonstrate a commitment to supermarket retention and promotion that goes beyond rhetoric.