“Building community with our local groceries—that’s the antidote”
- Julie C. Thompson
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
Small grocers anchor neighborhoods, but only when we buy in. What will it cost us to reclaim food access and economic autonomy?
After signing papers for their first home, Rossi Rivera and her husband spent an afternoon exploring their new community. A few minutes down the road, they stumbled upon Westview Corner Grocery, a small store owned by a couple who live in the neighborhood. On its yellow-painted brick facade read “THRIFTOWN,” a nod to a local independent chain that once operated in the same historic building, just off Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard.
For Rivera, who had her first child 10 months earlier and was conscious about healthy eating, discovering the store felt serendipitous. It carried all the natural and organic brands she used to buy at big box stores farther into the city. As she settled into the community, Rivera became a regular and made shopping locally part of her lifestyle.
Like others across the country, though, Rivera’s family is feeling the pinch of an unstable economy, as a trade war disrupts supply chains, causing inflation and financial stress for small businesses and shoppers alike. In today’s global economy, how realistic is it for Atlantans to shop local—and why does it matter?
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Community economist and local investment expert Michael Shuman says the question isn’t whether a purchase is local, but how local it is. He writes about how to build more robust community economies and says the “perfect local purchase” is a product that’s not only sold and manufactured in the community, but also made with local resources. For example, buying a hammer made and sold by a local hardware store and produced by a local manufacturer with local materials keeps more money circulating in the community. If any part of that chain is outsourced—say, the hammer is imported or sold by a national chain—the impact diminishes.
Although polling shows that most people are concerned about the possibility of a recession, Shuman says cost isn’t the only factor they consider when making a purchase—if that were the case, no one would buy a latte for $5. “What people shop for is their sense of value,” Shuman said. That’s why people are willing to pay more for local brands; on some level, they understand that buying local isn’t just a transaction; it’s an investment in their community.
Jenifer Risley, director of operations at the American Independent Business Alliance, organizes campaigns to encourage shoppers to invest in local banks and support small Black- and LGBTQ-owned businesses. Risley said eating locally is the easiest way to start forming a new local-first habit, but any form of local investment will create a ripple effect.
“For us, it’s about ownership. Who actually owns the business? Independent owners who live in the community can make decisions that directly benefit it. Chain stores often lack the flexibility to prioritize local sourcing or hiring,” Risley explained. While shopping at a locally owned franchise has more impact than buying from Amazon, it doesn’t have the same effect as supporting an independent business.
“For us, it’s about ownership. Who actually owns the business? Independent owners who live in the community can make decisions that directly benefit it.” —Jenifer Risley, American Independent Business Alliance
The impact of investing in local businesses goes beyond a single purchase; it’s about the transactions that follow, as those businesses reinvest in the community through payroll, donations, and other contributions. A 10-year study found that, on average, $0.53 of each dollar spent at a locally owned business recirculates in the local economy, compared to less than $0.14 at chain stores.
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After a rundown convenience store on RDA shuttered its doors, a group of five neighbors bought the historic building to renovate it. Among them was husband-and-wife team Patrick Berry and Steffi Langer-Berry, who would transform the dilapidated building, which first opened as a Kroger in 1949, into a food market like the ones that had operated in the neighborhood decades before.
Today, Westview Corner Grocery prioritizes local sourcing and carries Atlanta-based brands like King of Pops and Doux South pickles, but their produce is often shipped from other states or countries. “People ask me all the time, Is your produce local? Some of it is, definitely. But there are no Georgia avocados, and technically Vidalia onions are only in season for a few months,” said general manager Matt Garbett.
Georgia’s state farmers markets generate more than $1 billion annually, and programs like Georgia Grown help connect consumers with farms and producers. But corporate supply chains obscure the farm-to-table process and can make it impossible to trace the origins of products, including Georgia’s top commodity: broiler chicken. Ever stopped to read the USDA labels on packaged chicken? Federal label laws require sellers to disclose if their meat was imported, but not the U.S. state where it was raised. Companies pay fees for organic and non-GMO labels, but to save money, meat corporations or “integrators” may send products out of state for processing. According to William Secor, an agricultural economist and assistant professor at the University of Georgia, cost efficiency drives these decisions. Often, this comes at the expense of transparency.
While not all the brands at Westview Corner Grocery are based in Georgia, the store carries brands from other small businesses that share their values. For instance, they carry an assortment of poultry products from Farmer Focus, which labels each package with a unique Farm ID to learn about the farms where the meat was raised.
As a member of the Independent Food Retailers Alliance, Westview Corner Grocery belongs to a purchasing cooperative representing 350 independent retailers. This allows them to get better pricing from distributors and compete more effectively with large grocery chains.
“Kroger is a multi-billion dollar corporation with X number of stores, whatever, so they get better pricing, because they can bargain with the distributors based on the volume that’s pushing through. So INFRA is doing the same thing, but on behalf of independent stores,” Berry said.
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After getting off work one Friday in mid-March, Rivera picked up her daughter before swinging by Westview Corner Grocery, her third stop that week. An employee had lit sage at the register, and the Smiths played as Rivera pushed her cart through the aisles. Along for the ride, three-year-old Solace, whose mop of loose curls was pulled into a ponytail, sat quietly in the child seat.
Rivera sees shopping locally as a way to show up for her community and hopes her daughter will learn from her example, even though she can’t exclusively shop at independent stores. Her husband is in the film industry, and they’re still getting back on their feet after the strikes. They frequent Westview Corner Grocery to buy snacks and juices but drive to a chain store further into the city for bigger grocery hauls.
Many Westview residents appreciate the convenience of having a neighborhood grocery store, but few appreciate what it does to their wallets. One regular customer estimated that he spends anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar more per item bought at Westview Corner Grocery. But when it comes to organic and natural products, Westview’s prices for items like milk, fruit, and even certain cuts of meat often match—or beat—those at larger chains. (See the chart below for details.)
Price check on aisle 3By Julie Thompson |
Because Westview Corner Grocery is committed to selling organic and natural options, comparing prices to big box stores can be like comparing apples to oranges. Prices also vary based on which brands a location carries and fluctuate based on sales and promotions, but the following is an analysis at the time of reporting:
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Still, Westview residents are fortunate to live within walking distance of fresh food; that’s not the reality most Atlantans face. In 2024, the USDA identified more than 35 food deserts in metro Atlanta, where the nearest grocery store is more than five miles away. Even as nonprofits and city leaders collaborate to tackle food insecurity, the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts to food assistance programs and deregulation of nutrition programs could undermine those efforts. And, as tariffs go into effect, the nation could be on the brink of a recession.
“Today we got so many bad things happening, so many negative things, but I have started seeing more of the community pulling together,” said Yolanda Travis, a regular at Westview Corner Grocery. “It’s happening slowly, but building community with our local groceries—that’s the antidote.” •
5 places to shop localBy Nile Kendall |
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