Chicago’s Grocery Crisis Was Built to Fail | Chad O. Jackson

Chicago officials and media outlets are presenting the city’s recent grocery store closures as a simple consequence of federal SNAP cuts under the Trump administration. But that explanation leaves out the deeper conditions that made these stores financially unstable in the first place. Tonight, I will discuss what happens when a grocery infrastructure is built around government subsidies, political intervention and long term dependence on public assistance rather than a sustainable customer base. I will also address how soft on crime policies, theft, declining commercial stability and the ideological demand for government run or government supported industry created a perfect storm that was destined to collapse. This is not merely a story about food access. It is a story about dependency, failed governance and the consequences of policies that undermine the very communities they claim to protect.