Protest Pressures Owner of Foodtown

By JORDAN MOSS

Bedford Park resident Florence O'Brien usually hates making the trip across Mosholu Parkway to buy her groceries at one of few supermarkets she's able to shop at, but last Friday she came to the store on a mission.

With picket signs in hand and elected officials and reporters in tow, O'Brien and 40 of her neighbors gathered in front of Foodtown in Norwood to protest market owner Sydney Katz' business practices. Assemblyman Jeffrey Klein, Councilwoman June Eisland and Community Board 7 chairperson Nora Feury were all in attendance.

When a popular C-Town store closed down on East 204th Street in Bedford Park last year, community residents, many of them senior citizens, were forced to make the trek across the parkway to Norwood and back hauling their grocery bags.

"It's a darn long trip," complained Marguerite Goodwin, another senior who dreads the trek across the parkway, as she and her neighbors marched in a circle in front of the Foodtown at Bainbridge Avenue and 204th Street, carrying placards that read "Foodtown Starves Community," "Don't Make Our Seniors Walk Across the Park," and others.

Katz owns the C-Town property and holds the lease on a large vacant space across the street on East 204th Street near Valentine Avenue. Other supermarket owners have offered to lease the vacant space, but Katz has refused, according to Klein who helped organize the protest. By doing so, protesters insist Katz is protecting his monopoly on supermarket business in the area.

Klein also said Katz is currently negotiating to buy the lease from the owners of
F & B (at East 207th Street), the only other large supermarket on the Bainbridge Avenue/East 204th Street commercial corridor, raising concerns that Katz would close F & B as a grocery.

Katz, who owns nine other Foodtown stores, also controls two other large Norwood properties, both of them former supermarkets. According to a local merchant who did not want to be identified, Katz owns the property leased by Stella variety store on Bainbridge Avenue near East 206th Street (formerly Daitch/Shopwell) and owns the Price Busters business (formerly Pioneer) on East 204th Street in Norwood.

A statement distributed at the rally by a Foodtown representative said, "In the case of the C-Town location, our original marketing feasibility study indicated that the neighborhood will not support two competitively priced supermarkets." The statement offered to "revisit our original marketing study ... in order to find a financially viable way to offer high quality and fair prices in a location that many residents find convenient. Over the next several weeks, we will be looking at a number of options in this area in a sincere effort to find one that is workable."
Foodtown also offered a free van service to shuttle shoppers from Bedford Park to Norwood.

"Nonsense!" Klein scoffed in response. "What are you going to do, have people shop between the hours of 12 and 2? People need to buy their food when they need to buy their food."

Klein sarcastically added that it was "convenient" for Katz to bus people in to shop at his own store.

For several months, residents, elected officials and members of Community Board 7 have written and called Katz to request a meeting -- to no avail. Now that they've stepped up the pressure (five news organizations were present at the protest) they hope he'll change his mind.

If that doesn't work, Eisland promised protesters she'd use her power within city government to turn up the heat. "We want to make sure all of his buildings are in compliance with the building code," she said, adding with a nod and a wink, "I think you all get my drift."

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