Wichita spoils a person.
So my complaint today is going to ring a bit hollow in a city where you can get anywhere in 20 minutes, thanks to the foresight of developers and city fathers.
But I’ll tell you what: There’s nothing I’d like to see downtown more than a Dillons. Or a Wal-Mart. Or anywhere nearby I can go to pick up a bottle of contact lens solution – for less than $10 – or a heaping pint of chicken fried rice without driving out of my way to the suburbs to wage hand-to-hand combat with the battalions of Wichita workers with the same after-work ideas.
It might happen. Wal-Mart reportedly has developed a multi-story downtown business model that it could implement across the country. And if you’ve been paying attention in Wichita lately, Dillons is fine-tuning its approach to groceries with new sites and new stores across town.
But talk is cheap. Get back to me, Wal-Mart and Dillons officials, and let’s get this downtown grocery store going.
9 Comments
Given the surfeit of high-end condo/loft housing materializing, I think what downtown really needs is Whole Foods Market. (The real Whole Foods, not the vitamin shops we already have.) Anybody with me?
I’m with you! Great idea. Or a Trader Joe’s. Or even just a nice local grocery store. It’s almost blasphemy to suggest a Dillon’s or a Wal-Mart downtown. That would ruin the feel that is being created down here. Instead of crying because you can’t get a pint of fried rice, a bottle of contact lense solution and a roll of toilet paper all in one stop, why not ask for: an Asian restaurant, a drug store and a small mom and pop grocery store – all within walking distance of each other. Actually, we already have Hana Cafe in Old Town. I’m sure you could get your pint of fried rice there. It would taste better too. We just need a drug store and a grocery store!
Not Dillon’s, please! Having lived downtown for 14+ years, it would be great to have a decent small grocery/drug store downtown. Thankfully, we do have the farmers market on Saturdays where we can at least get fresh produce.
Government has to subsidize the wages of Wal-Mart employees through our social programs.
It boils down to this issue: As people move downtown to live, into the WaterWalk condos, into the other residential developments and into the new projects that will inevitably follow the arena, they’re going to need more essential lifestyle services.
The form those services take is anyone’s guess, but drugs, groceries, et al. are going to have to happen downtown in some form.
Lonnietheplummer said, “Government has to subsidize the wages of Wal-Mart employees through our social programs.”
I work at Wal-Mart and I get nothing from the government. You are wrong and you don’t know what you are talking about. Now, when I did work for a mom and pop hometown grocery store, I did receive government subsidies because they did pay minimum wage and that’s all they pay.
Any place where a single mother works, there will be subsidies, but don’t blame it on Wal-Mart.
What about a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market? It would be perfect and would give a lot of single mothers a place to work.
Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wal-Mart_Neighborhood_Market
Ugh! No more Wal-Marts of any flavor in this town. Why don’t we have a Costco? I’d love a (real) Whole Foods too, but even in the entire KC metro area there’s only one so I don’t know if we have the population base.
I think Kansas is out of luck on a Trader Joe’s until we move our alcohol policies at least up to the 20th century… you need to be able to buy wine and beer (real beer, not that 3-2 crap) in a supermarket. I’d love to have one though. It’s one of the few things I miss about California.