Zak Stone Photo
Neighborhood leaders channeled fear and concern over losing the Whalley Avenue’s Shaw’s supermarket into the beginnings of a citizen-driven marketing drive to lure a new store to town.
Supporters of the replacement grocery store will have to sharpen their sales pitches and rehearse their talking points, as they prepare to prove to the world why Dwight Place — the shopping center anchored by Shaw’s — would be a great place to open a new supermarket.
This marketing campaign launched at a community meeting Tuesday night in the Dwight Police Substation. More than 50 potential volunteers gathered to hear about the latest development in the quest to replace Shaw’s.
Linda Townsend-Maier (pictured above on left), executive director of the Greater Dwight Development Corporation (GDDC), said that New Haveners need to “make the statement loud and clear” that the city’s shoppers can support a new grocery store if they expect to attract a new corporate buyer.
New Haven’s was one of only two stores statewide turned down by buyers like Stop & Shop when Shaw’s corporate parent SuperValu decided to pull the retail line out of Connecticut last month. As a result, the Whalley Avenue store will close at the end of March. That will put more than 100 workers out of a job and convert central neighborhoods like Dwight into “food deserts,” where affordable fresh food will be unavailable for those without a car. Click here to read a back story.
Tuesday night’s was the second neighborhood meeting about the closing. Neighborhood leaders have been struggling with the difficulty of “harnessing the energy and talent [of the community] and moving forward,” said Whalley Avenue Special Services District head Sheila Masterson. Tuesday night’s meeting marked the first attempt on behalf of the GDDC to take advantage of community support as part of a concrete plan to advance the search for a replacement.
The first step? Filling out a survey. All of the meetings attendants were presented with a questionnaire, which addressed questions like “Was it convenient for you to get to Shaw’s? Why did you not do more of your shopping at Shaw’s? What should a replacement supermarket do to be more attractive to customers?”
The point of the survey is to give New Haven a “leg up” in attracting potential buyers, said Townsend-Maier. She said that corporations most likely “don’t consider the huge student and institutional population that’s in this town everyday” when they do their basic demographic research on the low-income Dwight neighborhood. Townsend-Maier insisted that there exists a market base to support a full service grocery store. The survey results will attest to the diversity of this client-base, the strength of their support, and the potential for revenue.
Masterson agreed that the survey will dispel the notion that a discount grocery store is best suited for the neighborhood. She said that while a corporation might say that Dwight is a “poor neighborhood, we can sell our junk” with a discount supermarket, the survey will complicate this perception with information on use by “commuters and students.”
Townsend-Maier said that analyzing the data will give the GDDC a unique picture of the community’s needs, before a third community meeting takes place March 30. She said that SuperValu has been less than helpful in providing the GDDC with financial statistics that would be useful for marketing the site to a new buyer.
Community members suggested doing whatever it takes to get as many people as possible to fill out the survey. Doug Hausladen from the Livable Streets Campaign urged supporters to hand out the survey at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and to “keep tweeting” links to it on the internet. Lee Cruz of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven said that everyone at the meeting should prepare an “elevator pitch” and rehearse the “talking points” for convincing others in the community to fill out the survey and rally around a new store.
Shaw’s employee Helen C. Powell asked if anyone could help educate Shaw’s workers about their financial prospects. She said that “some of the workers don’t understand” what is happening with their 401k or other aspects of the process. She carried with her a recent letter from her the United Food and Commercial Workers Union President Brian Petronella, which said that the union had proposed a severance package for the Shaw’s workers but had not received confirmation yet.
Former Yale Alderwoman Rachel Plattus said that she will do her best to let Yale students know about getting involved, since many students are currently out of town for spring break. She asked how the community can help “fill the gap” during the “period of time when [Shaw’s] is not available.” Even if the GDDC finds a buyer soon, it is likely that there will be a period when the space sits idle.
Townsend-Maier said that security will be a “major issue” at the plaza. She pledged to work with SuperValu to keep the lights on after the store closes. Masterson said that neighbors ought to pick up the phone and call their carless neighbors to offer rides to suburban grocery stores. If that happens, the community will not experience “that much of a desert,” she said.
While there was some excitement among attendants about starting a farmers’ market in the store or even in the parking lot during the interim gap, Townsend-Maier said that the space is still controlled by SuperValu, which would probably disapprove of that idea. There are still “liability issues.” The parking lot is the “slip and fall Mecca of New Haven,” she said.
Townsend-Maier said that the GDDC will meet with the mayor on Thursday to see what the city can do to help, such as offer incentive funds to a potential new buyer.