Officials Shop for a Solution to High Food Prices in La Colonia

OXNARD — About dinner time, on a busy sidewalk in La Colonia, Esperanza Tostado struggles to carry three plastic bags filled with carrots, tortillas, bread and canned vegetables.

She just spent $15 at the corner market, a lot of money for the wife of a vegetable packing plant worker. On this trip alone, Tostado figures she has lost $3 or $4 compared with what she would have spent at a supermarket.

But there is no supermarket in La Colonia. And her husband took the car to work. Not about to let her two children go hungry, Tostado pays a premium for food.

In such impoverished communities as La Colonia, high food prices are one of life’s harshest realities. Sociologists use a simple phrase to describe the price gap between inner city markets and middle-class shopping plazas: “The poor pay more.”

Here neighborhood leaders are so troubled by the disparity that they have called on UCLA’s graduate Department of Urban Planning for help.

Tapping UCLA’s expertise in urban issues, a coalition of neighborhood leaders, police and housing officials plans to import discount food to one of Ventura County’s poorest neighborhoods.

The goal is to open a “buyers club,” where La Colonia residents could purchase household staples at bargain prices--a sort of Price Club for the barrio.

This month, UCLA students who were contacted by alumni working in Oxnard will launch a broad survey of neighborhood food prices and shopping habits. The survey’s results will be used to set prices and advertise the nonprofit, open-air market that organizers hope to launch this summer.

The move would put social workers in competition with longtime owners of corner stores, challenging their hold on the local food market.

It’s a challenge activists say is long overdue.

“They’re using their own people to get fat and rich,” said Francisco Barajas, a Housing Authority official and member of the nonprofit Coalition for Community Development. “It’s exploitation.”

Adding to the potential tension, advocates say they plan to use the market to promote classes on drug abuse and alcoholism--a problem they say local market owners foster by selling cheap beer and wine.

“In the suburbs, you see things like pork chops on sale, but a lot of these stores have liquor on sale [as often as] food. I find that questionable,” said Megan Hunter, one of two UCLA graduate students who have been commuting from Westwood to Oxnard to launch the project.

But market owners say they don’t deserve that kind of criticism. Sure, the beer is cheap, said Ben Herrera, owner of Ben’s Market on Cooper Road. But the friendly neighborhood atmosphere is the real draw, he said.

Standing at the cash register of his cramped store, Herrera lets a man buy a bag of sunflower seeds, even though he is a few cents short.

“We’re not stingy,” said Herrera, a member of the family that has run three neighborhood stores since the 1950s: Ben’s Market, Bob’s Market and Boy’s Market. “If they’re short a penny or two, I say, take it, don’t pay me.”

Moreover, market owners say no one should be shocked by their comparatively high prices. Unlike grocery store chains, small shopkeepers don’t get big discounts from distributors. To turn a profit, they have to charge more.

“My prices don’t compare to Price Club, because they’re different,” Herrera added. “They can get things cheaper. I can’t compete with that.”

Other store owners flatly dispute accusations of price-gouging.

“The competition is so high in that area,” said Alan Baek, whose parents are first generation Korean immigrants who have owned El Toro Market for a decade. “For every block you walk, you see a market. In general, the prices are very, very low. To survive there, we have to face the competition.”

Lack of Transportation

To be sure, activists concede that predatory pricing alone does not explain why La Colonia residents pay more for food. The dynamics of poverty are much more complex than that.

A major hurdle is transportation. Automobile ownership is often a luxury in such poor neighborhoods as La Colonia, where four in 10 children live in poverty and annual per capita income averages $5,500. Limited transportation means that for many, walking to convenience stores is the only choice.

The recent wave of grocery chain mergers has compounded the problem, experts say. More often than not, the post-merger locations that remain open are those closest to middle- and upper-class neighborhoods. In fact, some studies show a virtual flight of supermarkets from the inner city.

On top of that, when stores such as Costco or Price Club pick new locations, “they’re located strategically to go after the middle class,” said Gilda Haas, a UCLA urban planning professor.

In the end, low-income residents can wind up paying as much as 49% more for food than affluent suburbanites, said Haas, who is not directly involved in the Oxnard project but has helped launch similar efforts in Los Angeles.

A scan of the aisles at three of La Colonia’s corner markets--Ben’s Market, La Bodega and El Toro Market--and the Vons market on Rose Avenue about a mile away, illustrates the price gap.

At the three corner markets, the price of a box of Tide laundry detergent ranges from $4.79 to $4.99. At Vons, the detergent costs $3.95.

At Ben’s Market, Honey Bunches of Oats cereal costs $3.79 a box; at Vons, it costs $2.99.

A 10-pound bag of C+H sugar at El Toro Market goes for $5.39. A Vons Club cardholder pays $3.99.

Corner stores offered lower prices for some generic, perishable items, such as milk and eggs. But, leaders contend, that just points to another problem: At neighborhood stores, perishable goods sit on the shelf longer.

“Some of the fruits and vegetables have mold on them,” said Henry Casillas, the Housing Authority’s resident services director. “That’s another issue.”

Inner-City Food Programs

Looking for solutions, Oxnard activists have toured several buyers clubs in the Los Angeles area. Casillas, who received a master’s degree in urban planning from UCLA in 1992, is heading up Oxnard’s effort to copy successful inner-city food programs.

One such program is the Gathered in Action Toward Economic Self-Sufficiency (GATES) food cooperative in South-Central Los Angeles.

Catering to neighborhood women, the GATES market charges members about $1 a month to belong to the food club. Members must also volunteer an hour of work each month at the indoor market, helping to set up booths and sell goods.

The formula for providing cheap food is simple: Organizers drive to Costco and a fresh vegetable market, fill their vans with food and dry goods, and bring the cargo to the neighborhood for resale.

At the weekend market, members enjoy the same kinds of discounts wealthier people do: 63 cents for a pound of spaghetti, 80 cents for a roll of paper towels. Nonmembers pay an additional 20%.

What’s more, the GATES group doesn’t simply sell food. During the Saturday market, it holds classes on immigration, self-defense, health and other issues that affect low-income residents.

That kind of innovation impressed members of the Oxnard coalition, who think that using cheap food to attack a broad range of social problems is a great idea.

“Hopefully we’ll spin off and talk about crime, housing and education,” Casillas said.

“We really feel if we build it, they will come. And we’ll have so many people there, we’ll really build a good base in the community. We’re hoping that once the people come in, some people will demonstrate leadership.”

Details are still being worked out, but Casillas said the market would probably be held once a week and outdoors--perhaps at the old Ramona Elementary School--in an effort to create the atmosphere of a Latin open-air market.

In the meantime, the two UCLA graduate students are doing research aimed at figuring out what foods to buy and how much to charge. To start, they will walk the aisles of La Colonia’s 15 corner markets making a price list. And this spring, volunteers will conduct a door-to-door survey asking basic questions:

Where do you go grocery shopping? What foods do you buy? How would you rate the local prices: affordable or too high? How would you rate the food quality? Do you have a car?

The background research is critical, organizers said, to ensure that the fledgling buyers club doesn’t wind up with a huge backlog of unbought goods and have to go out of business.

“Number 1 is knowing your market,” said Haas, the UCLA professor. “[If it’s] a Latino market, people aren’t going to buy tofu.”

Herrera, owner of Ben’s Market, said he has heard about the plans, but is not concerned about losing business.

“I’m not worried,” he said, stressing that he sells liquor and beer, but the new market will not. “I have my own clientele.”

Nonetheless, activists are working to head off any friction .

“We’re not saying you guys are bad and evil--you’re here to make a profit,” Casillas said. “But it’s a free market, and we have a right to offer an alternative.”