My “2 Cents” On the New King Soopers Coming to Stapleton

So it looks like the next grocery store to open in Stapleton will be….another King Soopers.   It will be located in the Eastbridge Town Center.  It’s not a guarantee yet but all indications from Forest City point in this direction.  (For example see this recent Front Porch article)  So is this a good or bad thing for the community?  I don’t mean to ride the fence on this issue but I think for me the answer is it depends on what lens I look at the situation through.

If I look at the situation through my “Stapleton” lens I tend to agree with those who are not very excited about another King Soopers.  Here are a few questions that pop into my head and admittedly I don’t have all the info that Forest City has so I can’t say with any accuracy they made the “wrong” decision.  (For example, maybe it was a “right of first refusal” situation with King Soopers)  With so many people expressing their desire for variety and a more natural grocer option why put in another store just like the one we already have?  Why with this demographic can we not get a more unique grocery store option?  Is Forest City listening to the neighborhood and really trying to accommodate them or are they just doing what is best for Forest City?  I have all these thoughts when I look through my Stapleton lens and I think by putting in another King Soopers Forest City is missing an opportunity to add value the neighborhood through adding variety.

If I step back and look at it through my “global” lens I think it’s great we’re getting another grocery store right in our neighborhood where we can get fresh healthy food with lots of variety without having to drive far at all.  I’ve been lucky enough to travel to Africa a few times and when you see that kind of poverty first hand it’s honestly pretty hard to stomach complaining about too many of the same types of grocery stores in our neighborhood here.  We, and I am very much including myself in this “we”, sometimes forget that a store full of food accessible any time of day is not something the whole world has access to.  You don’t have to go as far as Africa to see this perspective.  To bring it a little closer to home, even when I am showing homes in other neighborhoods there are plenty of examples of areas that don’t have any grocery stores anywhere near them.  My point is we’re blessed here and sometimes that’s hard to see if we only look through the Stapleton lens.

So for whatever it’s worth that’s my 2 cents.  How you feel about it probably depends on your experiences and the lens you’re looking through.

Agree?  Disagree?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!