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Health & Fitness

Bye Bye Bread Store

In case you haven’t heard, that little bread store at the corner of 70th and Nicollet Avenue in Richfield is going to close on September 21st. After that, no more bread store...But why is it closing?

Hmm. No one knows for sure. Or maybe someone DOES know, but the corporate bread gods don’t want their customers to know the real reason.

The story going around is that a Mexican company bought all these bread stores, and now management is closing various outlets, while leaving others in operation. So the one in Richfield is closing, but the other outlet in New Brighton will remain open. Why? All the employees at the Richfield store said they didn’t really know. Apparently, no one had told them in advance about the closing. “But the store in New Brighton will still be open,” they said. “You can go there.”

Gee, I can hardly wait to drive over 35 miles out of my way for a package of Li’l Debbie Devil Cakes! It’s a dream come true! Somebody pinch me!

Seems like only yesterday that the bread/bakery outlet was another little 7-11. This popular convenience store -- more attractive nuisance for tweens and teens from the nearby high school than a serious food mart -- closed only to rise again (no pun intended) as a bread store. Although it changed names from Taystee to Sara Lee, it offered low and discounted (even bargain) prices on familiar carbs for decades. Such was the lifespan of a profitable and popular institution.

I know what you’re thinking: it wasn’t making money. Well, yes, it was. It WAS profitable enough. That’s why it HAD to close down. Closing this bread store is yet another example of relocating/removing undesirable groups of people via “real estate development.”

It’s a sneaky form of racial, ethnic, age, and class discrimination that’s perfectly legal.

In other words, if you don’t build it, THEY won’t come. Or, if you tear down the building, THEY’LL have to leave. At any rate, THEY won’t be around this part of town anymore.

That’s what everybody -- from anal-retentive city planners to greedy real estate moguls to xenophobic residents -- seems to want. They want to get rid of the “riff-raff.” They want to banish the low-quality, low-life, low-income people by getting rid of the places they frequent. And, as we all know, LACK OF WEALTH = LACK OF CLASS AND EVERYTHING ELSE.

Nowadays it’s just not cool to consume carbs anymore. That’s why the cool people think that anyone who eats bread is dumb.

And we, the Good, God-fearing, tax-paying people of Richfield don’t want those bread-eating low-lifes around us. Get out of here, Breadeaters! GO AWAY!

What better way to end hunger than to get rid of hungry people. How simple. How convenient. How easy it is to get rid of hungry people by eliminating the place where they buy their bread.

For reasons that defy logic, too many educated people believe hunger will go away when we eradicate the store that gives hungry customers the best prices on bread and other baked goods.

That’s like trying to wipe out the ballerina population by burning down all the tutu factories. Tutus or no tutus, dancers are going to keep dancing. They’re not going to stop dancing because you eliminated their favorite dance costumes.

Likewise, eliminating a source of nutritious food that people can easily afford won’t keep them from getting hungry. The hunger will always be with us -- as long as we’re here, as long as we keep trying to stay alive.

Just lately, however, carbohydrates have been getting a bad rap from the medical experts and gourmet foodies alike. Mention the word “bread” in a conversation sometime and see what happens. Amid the eye-rolling and the head shaking, there’s a real disdain for bread as food. All bread is now erroneously dismissed as empty, useless junk food. Not necessarily so.

Let’s look at the big picture -- the whole grain picture. No, not everything sold at the bread store is healthy, nutritious food. Then again, not every item at that outlet is a fudge cake or gooey sweet roll, either. You can also purchase 7-grain, whole wheat, Healthy Choice breads there for a lot less than what you’d pay at most other grocery stores.

So if you’re on a fixed income or tight budget or you’re really pinching pennies, that bread store can be a real lifeline. Are you listening, seniors on Social Security?

Do you know what I mean, single moms who are trying to make ends meet on a shoestring budget?

Hello, unemployed and underemployed shoppers. You used to be able to go to the bread store and buy some healthy, affordable foods that contained fiber and other nutrients. After September 21st, you won’t be able to do that anymore.

So let’s not poo-poo all the offerings from the bread store as high-calorie junk. It depends on what you buy. And what you buy becomes very important if you study labels but don’t have a lot of available cash to spend.

That’s the real problem here: being able to afford food. Nobody really likes that reality -- especially the residents who think they’re so much better than their penny-pinching, bread-eating neighbors.

The well-to-do residents who shop at the finer grocers don’t want to admit that their neighbors could be starving. They don’t want to believe that the only way some people here in Richfield can afford food is by shopping at a discount outlet...like this neighborhood bread store. Sad but true.

What do you suppose would happen, though, if these hungry suburbanites who could no longer go to the bread store were forced to rely on state and government aid for their food?

You can bet that the Guardians of the Suburban High Life would be the first ones to kvetch about the “over-usage” of programs like food shelves, meals-on-wheels, or SNAP.

So we do nothing when a lifeline for affordable food closes. Then we vilify residents because they must turn to government aid for help. Sounds like a real case of lose-lose elitism to me that Richfield is pretending not to notice.

Of course, I’m not saying that our City Fathers (and Mothers) are personally responsible for the demise of this bread store. I’m saying they’re not doing enough to keep the bread store around here. It wouldn’t hurt someone to look into this matter, do a little investigating, ask a few questions.

After all, our Urban Hometown wasted no time going after McDonald’s when its proposed new restaurant offended traffic patterns and aesthetic sensibilities. Can’t Richfield try to save a store that provides its residents with affordable food?

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