Downtown Atlanta neighborhood gets its only grocery store back, 16 months after arson

The Walmart Supercenter became the company’s first to be converted into a Walmart Neighborhood Market, giving neighbors access to more fresh food options than before. The 75,000 square foot location is almost double the size of Walmart’s typical Neighborhood Market and features a full-service grocery and financial center as well as an expanded bakery and pharmacy.

The store’s grand reopening was celebrated Wednesday by community leaders with an event featuring food tents, dancing mascots and the city’s top brass players.

“One of the gifts you gave us today is clean, fresh food in our own neighborhood,” said the Rev. Caroline B. Terry of Friendship Baptist Church, receiving applause and “amens.”

Credit: Miguel Martínez

Credit: Miguel Martínez

The ordeal highlights how many Atlanta neighborhoods, particularly those historically neglected or marginalized, are one incident away from regressing into a food desert.

A series of arsons in 2022 also destroyed a Walmart supermarket along Howell Mill Road and exacerbated fears of crime that permeate Vine City and other Westside neighborhoods. The incidents prompted the city to integrate an Atlanta police station into the new Neighborhood Market, which Mayor Andre Dickens said would help ensure the area’s vital food source is not threatened.

“(We don’t want) it to close because of a crime, a theft or because of a perception of (crime),” he said. “Only their presence will be useful. »

“This is our Walmart.”

Vine City ranks among the city’s oldest and most diverse neighborhoods.

The wealthy, mostly white enclave became majority African-American after the city’s Great Fire of 1917 forced prosperous black residents out of other neighborhoods, including Sweet Auburn. The region’s demographics changed rapidly over the following decades. Vine City has also experienced depopulation, like many other downtown neighborhoods.

In 2022, more than 85% of the neighborhood’s 4,200 residents were black, according to data from the Atlanta Regional Commission. About 40 percent of Vine City residents live below the poverty line, more than double the city’s rate.

Walmart officials said the new Neighborhood Market is not only a critical food access point, but also a much-needed employment center for its neighbors. It will employ more than 135 workers, and Walmart on Wednesday donated $12,500 to a half-dozen Atlanta nonprofits.

“(The Neighborhood Market) was custom designed specifically based on what we learned at community meetings,” said Limark Tucker, senior director and market manager overseeing Vine City Walmart. “Vine City has clear needs and we listened to them. »

Credit: Miguel Martínez

Credit: Miguel Martínez

Outside of a few corner grocers and discount stores, the Neighborhood Market is the largest source of fresh food for several Westside neighborhoods and Atlanta University Center’s roster of historically black colleges and universities. It is one of many neighborhoods in the city that relies primarily on a single company for several vital goods and services.

Earlier this year, the Walgreens in downtown’s historic Olympic building closed, leaving downtown without a pharmacy, grocery store or stand-alone convenience store. Last September, a newly opened Publix on Hank Aaron Drive in Summerhill was forced to close for a week after a crane truck fell from the upper level of its connected parking lot.

Violent crime has long plagued Vine City. Although the city touts a more than 20% reduction in homicides citywide in 2023, neighborhood advocates have fired shots and shootings remain commonplace.

Dickens, who lives in Collier Heights, about five miles west of the new store, said it is up to the city and its police officers to make residents feel safe, adding that the new market neighborhood is a key community asset that needs support.

“We don’t want to just open this store and then close it because people aren’t shopping there,” he said. “…This is our Walmart, right?

Credit: Miguel Martínez

Credit: Miguel Martínez