News on Grocery Stores and Farmer's Markets

The Examiner today had two pieces related to grocery stores and farmer's markets. The first discusses the possibility of increasing the number of farmer's markets around San Francisco by using city-owned parks to host them...

Farmers markets may soon open up for business in a number of San Francisco’s parks.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi will introduce legislation today that establishes a formal process for farmers market organizers to apply with The City’s Recreation and Park Department to periodically set up a market on land overseen by the department.

“I’m enthusiastic in helping empower neighborhood vitality,” Mirkarimi said, adding that “farmers markets bolster the economic stability of all of our diverse neighborhoods.”

Also, the legislation could not have come at a better time, he said, given “this mass closure of grocery stores throughout The City.”

Interest has been shown to set up farmers markets at Golden Gate Park’s Panhandle, in Mirkarimi’s district, as well as on Rec and Park land in the Sunset District. But, to date, these proposals have not been supported. [more...]

And the second discusses both the closings of the Albertson's stores in San Francisco as well as the closing of the Cala Foods on Stanyan and the resulting political debacle that has arisen...

A group of toddlers stood holding signs in front of the Westfield San Francisco Centre on Monday asking residents to help keep their neighborhood grocery stores open.

The children, with their parents, stood protesting at the future home of a Bristol Farms, a high-end supermarket with ties to Albertsons. Five of The City’s 28 major grocery stores have shut down in the last year, leaving some neighborhoods without a market to buy fresh produce, meat or dairy products.

And, according to some experts and community activists, the supermarket business is shifting toward larger, higher-end stores such as Whole Foods, Mollie Stone’s and Bristol Farms.

In June, Albertsons announced it would be closing 37 Northern California stores, including one on Alemany Boulevard and another on Clement Street in San Francisco. The announcement came just a year after Cala Foods announced the closure of two stores in The City, one on Stanyan Street and another on Mission Street, and the sale of nine others. [more...]

Upper Haight split over fate of vacated Cala site [Examiner] (scroll halfway down)
Cala leaves, political impasse arrives [SFHomeBlog]