KCRag Forum

After hearing yet another of my suburban friends take issue with the lack of grocery stores (for now), I ask... those of you in the suburbs, how long is your drive to the nearest grocery?  I'm talking from your driveway to the parking lot and back.  It isn't as if every neighborhood in the suburbs has a corner market.  It is probably a mile or two for most people to get groceries, which isn't a whole lot different than people in the city.  Sure, the point of the city is that you don't need to make those special trips, but there are other factors that help the city.  Unless the suburbanites can walk to the grocery store or get there in half the time those of us in the city can, I see this as a moot point.

staubio wrote: After hearing yet another of my suburban friends take issue with the lack of grocery stores (for now), I ask... those of you in the suburbs, how long is your drive to the nearest grocery?  I'm talking from your driveway to the parking lot and back.  It isn't as if every neighborhood in the suburbs has a corner market.  It is probably a mile or two for most people to get groceries, which isn't a whole lot different than people in the city.  Sure, the point of the city is that you don't need to make those special trips, but there are other factors that help the city.  Unless the suburbanites can walk to the grocery store or get there in half the time those of us in the city can, I see this as a moot point.

Literally less than seven or eight minutes round trip. Probably just as quick on foot.

Edit: oops - I misread that. I live in the city.

food staples can be found at:

- Osco (10th & Main)
- QH Supermarket (11th & Broadway)
- City Market you can get some stuff
- misc. other gas station convience stores.

i never got people always asking me when i lived downtown "where do you shop, my gosh!!!!!" and the way they would say it, they acted as though it was a major undertaking to go shopping. now, when i lived downtown, the price chopper combo on noland road was new, real nice, and about 12 minutes by car. and i would drive there once a month for major shopping, and suplement it with purchases at the quality hill pharmacy, and that psuedo ghetto supermarket at westport road and main, i think a food land or something.

Brookside Market is pretty cool.  their produce is the best i've ever seen.  i bought an orange bell pepper there and was so moved by its beauty that i bit into it voraciously like the "host" on Iron Chef.

staubio wrote: After hearing yet another of my suburban friends take issue with the lack of grocery stores (for now), I ask... those of you in the suburbs, how long is your drive to the nearest grocery?  I'm talking from your driveway to the parking lot and back.  It isn't as if every neighborhood in the suburbs has a corner market.  It is probably a mile or two for most people to get groceries, which isn't a whole lot different than people in the city.  Sure, the point of the city is that you don't need to make those special trips, but there are other factors that help the city.  Unless the suburbanites can walk to the grocery store or get there in half the time those of us in the city can, I see this as a moot point.

i got a hy-vee behind my house off of englewood road. that makes it a fairly short distance.

i guess one of the reasons I do live downtown is so I don't have a big box grocery or target behind my house....I'm one to be closer to bars, restaurants, etc. than grocery stores....but that's why we have both types of living arrangements.

KCPowercat wrote: i guess one of the reasons I do live downtown is so I don't have a big box grocery or target behind my house....I'm one to be closer to bars, restaurants, etc. than grocery stores....but that's why we have both types of living arrangements.

i do have 3 bars within 2 blocks of my house. plus a quik trip, a liquor store, a dry cleaners, a pizza joint, a barber shop, 4 banks, etc.......

i kinda do wish i lived dt in a condo. houses are a lot of work, especially when you have roses out the ass and trees and bushes to take care of.

many, many days i just want to come home and not have to think about all the outdoor stuff i have to take care of. i would rather sit back, watch some t.v. and smoke a big 'ol hogleg or some k.b.

the only plusses i can think of right now is not having someone living one wall away when you have a house and after living here awhile i am getting used to not hearing all those sirens and gunshots and police helicopters hovering 100 feet over my neighborhood at 3 in the morning.

my first year up here i practically needed a cop chopper to rock me to sleep. 

even if i wanted to, i couldn't probably afford to move dt.

ok you didn't live downtown if you were hearing sirens, gunshots, and police helicopters....at least any time recently.

I have all those things but a quiktrip...damn you for rubbing it in.

chrizow wrote: Brookside Market is pretty cool.  their produce is the best i've ever seen.  i bought an orange bell pepper there and was so moved by its beauty that i bit into it voraciously like the "host" on Iron Chef.

Like this, I take it?

http://takeshikaga.ytmnd.com/

KCPowercat wrote: ok you didn't live downtown if you were hearing sirens, gunshots, and police helicopters....at least any time recently.

I have all those things but a quiktrip...damn you for rubbing it in.

This is painful.  I can walk to a QT 2 blocks away at my current place, even at 3 in the morning, to get something quick.  In the RiverMarket, I won't have that luxery.  We need a 24 hour convenience store downtown!

Boognish wrote: Like this, I take it?

http://takeshikaga.ytmnd.com/

precisely! 

i am not even kidding.

KCPowercat wrote: ok you didn't live downtown if you were hearing sirens, gunshots, and police helicopters....at least any time recently.

I have all those things but a quiktrip...damn you for rubbing it in.

no i wasn't downtown. i was living in northeast at jackson and norledge.

i have been working downtown since '86 and have seen it go from a ghost town to what it is now.

hey, someone i can relate to in the forum. so i am guessing you at midtown or almost plaza now if you have a qt that close. i remember too that downtown from the 80's when i was there. pretty scary.

I was working in downtown Dallas for the last couple of weeks.  It's been a few years since I've been down thee and was surprised at the amount of new housing.  However, I still don't think they have as much as KC.  But, a great new market and cafe was just opened (http://www.urbanmarketdallas.com/).

Something like this would be great in KC.  It had a great selection and was a decent size, but not huge.  Open til 10pm every night while most everything else in the area is closed.  The Cafe did a booming lunch business - there are lots of businesses nearby.

Oh My GOD, Micheal, that gas station has had 100 names, 100 ownes, and 100 concepts. they were a total, i dont know that the hell they are now. then  a taco bell, then a kfc, then a subway, always something going in and out of there, it never stops. and always the perverbial sign on the door from september 1st through november 1st, no masks. want to keep the hoodelem excuse of working at a haunted house for crack money i have a reason to wear a mask in check.

that place is so terrible. and is really one of only 3 real gas stations right downtown. i always hoped that quicktrip would come in and develop a parcel on the west side or near bartle, but never happened, and probably never will either. it would be great where the quality hill towers are coming down one by one.

kcdcchef wrote: Oh My GOD, Micheal, that gas station has had 100 names, 100 ownes, and 100 concepts. they were a total, i dont know that the hell they are now. then  a taco bell, then a kfc, then a subway, always something going in and out of there, it never stops. and always the perverbial sign on the door from september 1st through november 1st, no masks. want to keep the hoodelem excuse of working at a haunted house for crack money i have a reason to wear a mask in check.

that place is so terrible. and is really one of only 3 real gas stations right downtown. i always hoped that quicktrip would come in and develop a parcel on the west side or near bartle, but never happened, and probably never will either. it would be great where the quality hill towers are coming down one by one.

I used to think it was homeless folks hangning out in front of this joint at night but I have increasingly come to the conclusion that these are night shift Star laborers.  Talk about a sketchy looking workforce!  The Star needs to invest in some coveralls or something for these guys to wear. 

LenexatoKCMO wrote: I used to think it was homeless folks hangning out in front of this joint at night but I have increasingly come to the conclusion that these are night shift Star laborers.  Talk about a sketchy looking workforce!  The Star needs to invest in some coveralls or something for these guys to wear. 

be real. the star can barely afford to pay the minimum wage for those guys. let alone buy them uniforms.

when i started at the star they hired the down trodden urban work force and guys from halfway houses. then they work up to the labor ready places. now they are going with refugees from around the world. i met a few russian guys from the mailroom and one time when i tried to help this guy get his car started with a jump, i asked him where he was from, cause he didn't look like he was from around here. he said "sudan". i asked him if he was one of the "lost boys". he said yes, him and his brother who was also there with the car.

ii guess the star is like a lot of places looking for low wage workers. you hire the newest immigrants. they're the cheapest.

tat2kc wrote: i tried local harvest in the crossroads a couple of times, was disappointed. Very limited selection of anything, really.  Less than 1,000 sq ft of space. The people were really nice, but not a good selection.

Anybody else notice that the crossroads Local Harvest went tits up?  They had a for lease sign in the window when I walked by the other night.  I hope their failure doesn't discourage someone from bringing a legitimate and practical neighborhood market to the crossroads.  I think the demand is definitely there. 

LenexatoKCMO wrote: Anybody else notice that the crossroads Local Harvest went tits up?  They had a for lease sign in the window when I walked by the other night.  I hope their failure doesn't discourage someone from bringing a legitimate and practical neighborhood market to the crossroads.  I think the demand is definitely there. 

The demand is certainly there.  I know people that have already pointed out that they are sad it is gone because they were planning on going.  It isn't the area that won't support it, it is that the store didn't really offer much.  I went there several times and actually had to try hard just to find something I wanted to buy to support the store.  They didn't have a selection to support cooking a meal, so it was good for stocking up on herbs or grabbing a piece of fruit and not much else.

Get a better small market and it will succeed.