Giant Grocery Store on Alabama Ave will probably close, and it’s not their fault

Washington D.C, August 11, 2023 — Trayon White held a press conference at the Giant grocery store to address fears of the store closing due to theft. Regrettably, the statements made included factual errors and opinions that represent the unsustainable behaviors that are common in Ward 8.

Concerning factual errors, White stated that “For decades, we’ve only had one grocery store serving 85,000 people, and that’s a shame”. Since Ward 8 was redistricted in 2022, there is a Harris Teeter in Navy Yard. Furthermore, the commissary on Joint-Base Anacostia Bolling has been operating for White’s entire life.  Additionally, there is a Safeway and a Lidl 1.5 miles away from the Giant, located a few hundred meters inside Ward 7, which will undoubtably be the new target for the local criminals currently abusing Giant.

White invited Mama Jo Patterson from East of the River Public Safety Consortium to speak after him. She quickly scolded Giant for operating as a business. “I know we talked about losing $300,000 but if we multiply how many years you have made money off of our communities it shouldn’t even be an issue…”  Mama Jo does not have familiarity with managing anchor tenet grocery stores and their operating costs, and shouldn’t be indignant that businesses close when the locals steal from them.

The real shame is that White and others sympathize and rationalize the behavior of criminals who are driving out the food providers and job creators. White, Mama Jo, and other local leaders publicly sympathize the side of the criminal rather than the job-providing business.

White actually offered a solution that has been proven to work, and then he changed the topic. “There was an effort to close this door over here, to get the traffic coming out this door, wand we found out  with that, it was by the fire chief that you couldn’t close both of those doors at the same time, that means that the theft went down for a little bit, and guess what it did? Jumped right back up.”

Besides fixing local regulations that allow Safeway to better prevent loss, another solution is that the community itself needs to protect this business by assisting law enforcement in reporting upon the criminals. Snitching will save lives, jobs, and our precious food distributers.

link to the press conference is here: https://www.facebook.com/77401509/videos/126830503785051/