- AROUND C-TOWN (25)
- CHINATOWN CALENDAR (41)
- LIFE AND STORIES OF ASIAN AMERICANS (8)
- THE CHINATOWN BEAT (5)
- The PU PU CHATTER (1)
- WORD ON THE STREET (83)
- September 2, 2008: What Are People Saying About Parcel 24?
- August 27, 2008: Selling Public Infrastructure and Privatized Chinatown?
- August 26, 2008: Reflections on Chinatown’s Former Movie Theaters
- August 26, 2008: Parcel 24: Draft Project Impact Report
- August 26, 2008: Hudson Street Gallery Grand Opening
- August 25, 2008: Films at the Gate and Fundraising Dinner
- August 25, 2008: Boston Herald: BRA Weighs Time-Limit for Projects
- August 21, 2008: Hudson Street Gallery
- August 19, 2008: Forum on 2nd Suffolk Senate Race
- August 18, 2008: Pictures of August Moon Festival, 2008
Our Sanitary Supermarkets
This issue has always been a concern for me whenever I’m dining or grocery shopping. However, Asian food has never been known for its cleanliness. Recently, the Herald had an article about the unsanitary conditions at our local supermarkets. One of the markets mentioned in this article is the Super 88 in Dorchester. Just walking into the store you can see that it isn’t as clean as a Roche Brothers. As consumers, what options do we have? I’ve probably been to every Asian supermarket in town and the cleanliness is roughly the same. Does everyone just accept the fact that it isn’t clean?
Obviously appearances are deceiving. There are American supermarkets noted in this article that share the same unsanitary conditions as our famous Super 88. I have never been to supermarkets of other ethnicities so I can’t provide a good comparison, but has any of you been to a Latin or Italian supermarket? Do they have the same problems?
I have some good friends in this industry and it is a battle for these folks. Most of these establishments are family owned businesses and they don’t have the funds to transform an aged store to something that looks like a Whole Foods. Furthermore, if sales haven’t changed and no one is complaining, the business has no reason to evolve.
So we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. First we can stop shopping at the Asian markets and inform the owners that it is due to sanitary reasons. However, we really don’t have an alternative place to get this produce. So this cycle continues until we figure out how to modernize our local businesses. I’ve always thought that there would be an entrepreneur risk adverse enough to close down an aging Asian supermarket, remodel the entire store and open with a fresh and clean environment that would start the ball rolling for all the local businesses. I guess it is up to the younger generation of grocery store owners to take the plunge and our job to let the problem be known.