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Opinion

Long without a supermarket, Far East Dallas will get a grocer thanks to $1.3M deal

Anyone who calls El Rio Grande low quality hasn’t stepped inside.

Many North Texans drive by a supermarket every day. Some of us have our pick of grocery stores near our home. If one grocery store doesn’t stock the fancy yogurt we like or the special flour we need for a recipe, we hop to the next store. And if we forgot to buy the tomatoes, well, it’s a quick trip back to the produce aisle.

Those choices are not available to too many Dallas residents. In low-income neighborhoods where many people depend on public transit to get around, a single store with fresh meat and produce is a luxury.

The city of Dallas notched a win last week when the City Council approved a $1.3 million economic development agreement that will bring an El Rio Grande Latin Market grocery store to a rundown shopping center in Far East Dallas. That area really needs it.

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The shopping center at the corner of Buckner Boulevard and John West Road was anchored by a Kroger grocery store in the 1970s, but it eventually gave way to a flea market that occupied the tired building for 15 years. The neighborhood in which it sits and an adjacent census tract are recognized by the federal government as food deserts, meaning that there are more than 100 homes without a car and more than half a mile from the nearest supermarket.

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A customer browses merchandise for sale on aisle one at Rio Grande in Mesquite, Friday,...
A customer browses merchandise for sale on aisle one at Rio Grande in Mesquite, Friday, March 26, 2021. (Brandon Wade/Special Contributor)(Brandon Wade)

The deal stipulates that the property will be leased to El Rio Grande Latin Market for 15 years. Economic development funds will cover storefront improvements to the 52,500-square-foot supermarket building and an adjoining 12,500-square-foot retail building. The parking lot will be resurfaced and redesigned with landscaped islands and new lighting. As part of the agreement, the developer must lease space to a sit-down restaurant that is not a fast-food chain.

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It’s also worth highlighting that this deal calls on the supermarket developer to recruit residents from specific low-income ZIP codes for jobs. Council member Adam Bazaldua, who represents the area, said the project is an investment in a dilapidated corner affected by high crime.

No one at a City Council meeting last week spoke up against the project except for Kevin Felder, the former District 7 council member who is running to unseat Bazaldua this spring. Felder said his neighborhood near the site wants a “quality grocery store like Aldi, Albertsons, Trader Joe’s or H-E-B.”

We are puzzled by Felder’s insinuation that a Hispanic supermarket chain with eight locations in North Texas — including four in Dallas — isn’t a “quality grocery store.”

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This is what we saw during a recent visit to El Rio Grande Latin Market in Pleasant Grove: an abundant produce section surrounded by a taquería, a tortillería and a juice bar; a bakery with mounds of packaged conchas, croissants and dinner rolls, along with a case of cakes piled with frosting and strawberries; and a meat department so extensive that it curved around the back of the store. Fridges were stocked with regular dairy and vegan options; freezers carried five different kinds of Eggo waffles; and shelves were loaded with Corn Flakes, Froot Loops and Cheerios.

Far East Dallas residents want fresh meals and well-stocked pantries; they want jobs and safe streets. This grocery store isn’t a cure-all, but it’s a game changer. Good, fresh food close by is something no one should be without.