Food & Culture Memo: America's Up-and-Coming Food Capitals and the Growing Food Culture in the United States

Salt Lake City, Utah (above) is one of America's Up-and-Coming food capitals.

Americans no longer have to live in cosmopolitan cities like New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami or Chicago in order to have a wide range of top-quality food shopping and eating choices available to them, including natural, organic, specialty, gourmet and ethnic food products.

The explosion of upscale independent grocers and regional food retailing chains, specialty stores and national chains such as Whole Foods Market, along with farmers markets and culinary-focused restaurants, throughout America has changed the food culture and availability of premium-quality foods in what used to be referred to as "second-tier" food cities in the United States.

Not too many years ago, if a consumer wanted a decent selection of say fresh organic produce, Asian grocery products or gourmet delights in cities like Phoenix, Arizona, Salt Lake City, Utah or Baton Rouge, Louisiana, it was slim pickings in terms of retail food stores and other shopping venues that carried products in these and other natural, organic, specialty and premium foods categories. The same was true in the case of quality ethnic or healthy foods-oriented restaurants.

For the most part though, those days are gone. American cities like these and many others, including even smaller cities of under 100,000 residents, today have in most cases numerous food shopping choices, from the organic to the super premium, available to residents. There's supermarkets that stock an abundance of natural and specialty products, natural foods stores, specialty markets, farmers markets, combination grocery stores featuring premium, prepared foods and much more. And even more so, this food culture is growing rapidly.

Today's Forbes.com focuses on this fact in an article it calls "America's Up-and Coming Food Capitals."

In today's piece, Forbes looks at those "second cities" like Salt Lake, Phoenix, Baton Rouge, Chapel Hill, North Carolina and a few others, which the publication calls America's emerging food capitals.

Along with food stores such as Whole Foods and others, Forbes takes a look at farmers markets, restaurants, specialty shops and market halls on the retail side, and writes about the specialty ans artisan food purveyors in these cities who are making the emerging food culture possible with their respective creations and innovations.

For example, here is what the Forbes feature says about the emerging food culture of Salt Lake City, Utah:

"That's right. In Salt Lake City, a group of local farmers, cheese makers, bakers and chefs are remaking the city's culinary image. Rockhill Creamery, Beehive Cheese and Drake Family Farms utilize area grazing pastures to produce a variety of cheeses, including goat's milk, Gouda, feta and Gruyère. Crumb Brothers Artisan Breads hand-crafts olive, sourdough and ciabatta loaves, as well as other breads and pastries. And establishments like Bambara, a Kimpton Hotel restaurant that uses ingredients from local growers and ranchers, prove that Salt Lake can compete with the standard-bearers."

In terms of food retailing, Whole Foods not too long ago opened one of its bigger natural and gourmet food emporiums in Salt Lake.

Additionally, local multi-store independent supermarket chains Harmon's and Dan's Foods are major sellers of natural, organic, specialty and gourmet food and grocery products. There also are farmers markets in Salt Lake and numerous gourmet food and wine stores helping to establish the city's culinary reputation, in addition to fine restaurants and other premium food venues.

A major engine behind these emerging American food capitals is the "local foods" phenomenon. Artisan food producers have and continue to spring up all over America, focusing on producing products made from locally-grown fruits, vegetables and grains, along with locally-raised and produced animals, eggs and dairy products.

Local retailers (and branches of national retailers like Whole Foods and many others) and local restaurants are supporting these purveyors by buying and selling their local crops (in the case of growers) and products. Farmers markets also serve as a showcase for these locally-produced and created bounties.

An example of this is the Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan region in North Carolina, which Bon Appetite magazine recently named "America's Foodiest Small Town." There are 120 small farms within a 50-mile radius of Chapel Hill, according to the magazine, and close relationships between chefs and farmers are helping the town gain credibility as a culinary destination.

You can read Forbes take on these emerging culinary cities here. Forbes also offers a more in-depth look of the topic at this link: In Depth: America's Up-And-Coming Food Capitals.

The growth of an American food culture beyond these cosmopolitan cities is good for the food industry as a whole, especially the natural, specialty, gourmet and related segments.

The growing local foods movement also is good for communities. It allows for the building of an agricultural and entrepreneurial food industry in these cities and regions which in many cases disappeared decades ago when mass-market distribution meant the cheapest food, regardless of how far away it came from, was King. It gives local growers a local market. This means they can sell their crops for more more than they would get by selling it to outside manufacturing companies or national food chains.

A stronger food culture also offers more opportunities for retailers, particularly local independents, to create a niche in which they can compete in against the mega chains.

Lastly, this emerging food culture in the U.S. is just plain good for communities and residents. More choices means fresh, better quality foods, be it at supermarkets, natural foods stores, restaurants or farmers markets. More consumers of quality food also means the prices will come down, since such a food culture creates more demand for more natural, premium and locally-produced foods.

Food Retailing & Society Memo: Wal-Mart Foundation Gives New York USA Food Bank System Over Half Million Dollar Cash Donation

Volunteers at this Manhattan food pantry, which is one of the hundreds located in communities throughout New York that are supplied by the food bank network and other donors, pack food boxes for fellow New Yorkers who need food assistance.

The Food Bank Association of New York state USA said yesterday it received a check for $577,000 from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to be used by the state's food bank network to provide food and groceries for the increasing number of New York residents caught in the nation's severe economic recession.

A spokesperson for New York's food bank network told Natural~Specialty Foods Memo that because of the network's size and ability to purchase food and grocery products at bargain rates from manufacturers, it believes it can leverage Wal-Mart's $577,000 donation into as much as $6 million dollars worth of food to distribute to the state's needy.

Wal-Mart broke down its donation to the food bank network this way, in order to localize the monies as well as to provide a significant portion to the main food bank network: it gave a lump-sum cash grant of $322,000 to the New York Food Bank Network from its Wal-Mart foundation, and an additional award of $25,000 to seven of the Food Bank Association's eight affiliates. On top of that it gave an $80,000 grant to the Food Bank of New York City.

Yesterday, Wal-Mart representatives and leaders of New York's food banks also announced the mega-retailer would hold a major food drive at all of its New York state Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores beginning next month and continuing over the following 12 months.

Scores of Wal-Mart-New York store associates also said on Tuesday they are planning to volunteer at the food banks and in other activities designed to help those in need of food assistance.

At yesterday's announcement, Wal-Mart also donated a semi-truck full of food and grocery essentials to the food bank network.

Last year, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. gave more than $7 million in cash and in-kind donations to causes and organizations throughout New York state, according to audited records.

The retailer has a strong and growing presence in the Empire State, with 92 Wal-Mart Supercenter and Discount stores, 17 Sam's Clubs, and three distribution centers.

Wal-Mart gets lots of flack, some of it deserved, for being a big bad corporation and mega-retailer. However, we should note we did a little checking and none of New York's investment or commercial banks -- the ones with their headquarters in New York City and the ones that the American taxpayer is now bailing out to the tune of $700 billion -- have donated anything even coming close to the $577,000 Wal-Mart donated in just this one check to the state's food banks.

Love it or hate it, or remain in between, but Wal-Mart isn't asking the American taxpayer for any sort of bailout. And in these tough economic times it is emerging as one of if not the major corporate charitable contributor in the U.S.

If you are hungry and in need of food assistance in New York and elsewhere in the U.S., you're going to be mighty happy that Wal-Mart is willing to write half a million dollar checks, along with conducting year-long food drives and other activities which will raise even more than that for the state's food banks. In fact, Wal-Mart is making similar cash donations and conducting similar food drives throughout the U.S.

Meanwhile, many of those New York investment banks that should be giving big donations to the New York Food Bank Network this year are instead asking New York and American taxpayers for a bailout because in numerous instances, unlike Wal-Mart and other retailers that do business the old fashion way -- they buy goods and sell them for a profit, adding value along the way to consumers -- these financial institutions created a way of doing business that made a few rich at the expense of many. In fact, it is safe to say the behavior of many of these financial institutions is having a direct effect in adding more Americans to the food insecurity roles.

Food & Community Memo: Food, Culture and Community Come Together At A Waitrose Supermarket In-Store Cafe on Valentine's Day

The experiment yesterday by British supermarket chain Waitrose to hold live plays in an in-store cafe at a Norfork, Wymonham supermarket is being hailed as a big success by all who participated in the Valentine's Day dramatic production, as well as by those store shoppers who were in the audience. [We wrote all about the play, "Lonely Hearts" in a piece last week you can read here.]

"Lonely Hearts" is a play written by Wymonham resident and Waitrose store customer Tony Vale. It's a short, about 10 minutes long, play about a couple who find mutual companionship while waiting in a restaurant for their respective blind dates to arrive.

The play featured amateur playright Vale's wife Georgette in the female lead, and Richard Crawely, a friend of Vale's who is an amateur actor as the male lead. The Vales' and Crowely all belong to the Wymondham Players, a community theatre group.

Waitrose agreed to host the Valentine's performances (there were two) of the play in its in-store cafe as a way to make live theatre more accessible to the public, and as a way to build closer bonds between the store and the community. And the play, "Lonely Hearts," and the day, Valentine's Day, fit perfectly together.

Local TV station Norwich Channel 24 covered both performances of the play at the Wymondham Waitrose supermarket in-store cafe yesterday. Following the performance, playright Vale told a Channel 24 news reporter "I've have never done anything like this before in a supermarket, but it seemed to go well. The customers all laughed in the right places, and clapped at the end, which is a good sign."

Indeed the audience, or customers, seemed to enjoy the free live theatre performance in the cafe considerably. Waitrose shopper Rod Crockford told Channel 24 he was impressed watching the unusual performance of a play in a supermarket. "I would have paid extra to watch it," Crockford told the reporter. "It brings a new meaning to sitting down and having a cup of coffee after you've done your shopping."

Waitrose store and cafe management staff were pleased with the performance and the crowd it brought to the store as well. We were able to get a store employee on the phone earlier today. The store staffer told us the cafe did a brisk business in coffees, teas and deserts right before, during and after the two performances of "Loney Hearts" yesterday. She couldn't tell us though if there were any Valentine's Day love connections made as a result of the performances at the Waitrose.

Waitrose marketing assistant Fran Young was the person behind the live theatre production happening at the Wymonham Waitrose supermarket's in-store cafe. She says playright Hale came to her with the idea to put the play on in the store. She talked to the store's manager about it and he agreed. She says it's part of her role to get the stores invloved with the community, and believes the play, and the concept of in-store cafe-presented live theatre, does that well.

We think such creative ideas like producing a play and other forms of live theatre and entertainment in a supermarket in-store cafe are smart, both in terms of invloving the stores' more closely with the communities they serve, and as a way to create more business for the cafes.

In the U.S., Whole Foods Market recently started having a live DJ spin music in the evenings on the patio of its in-store Bistro/Cafe and Wine Bar at its fairly new lifestyle-oriented supermarket in the Potrero Hill neighborhood in San Francisco. The DJ has been packing the crowds in during his evening sets.

We believe Waitrose has stumbled on to something good and important yesterday at the Wymondham in-store cafe, where the play "Loney Hearts" received at least five stars from the store's shoppers. We hope the grocer branches out, and starts to experiment with similar dramatic productions at its in-store cafes at other Waitrose branches. (Listening Mark Price?) This would be a wonderful boost for the arts, and hopefully would get food retailers in other parts of the world to experiment with the concept as well. (Listening Whole Foods?)

We like the sound of it: "Coming to a supermarket near you; community theatre."

>You can view a video of the play "Lonely Hearts," which was taped yesterday while being performed live in the Wymondham Waitrose supermarket in-store cafe, at the Norwich Channel 24 website by clicking here. You also can read the station's full-coverage of the play's dramatic supermarket debut at the website.

Retail Memo: Tesco Fresh & Easy Insight: A New Store Blooms in Compton, CA.; F&E's Chicagoland March; a Sacramento Neighborhood and F&E Get Hitched

Prince Andrew, Duke of York, addresses a crowd at this morning's grand opening of the Fresh & Easy grocery market in Compton, California.

A New Fresh & Easy neighborhood grocery market opens in a struggling Southern California city trying to chart a new future--and offers shoppers a 'Royal' welcome on grand-opening day.

Making good on its promise to not only open its small-format, neighborhood grocery stores in middle-class and upper-income suburban communities but in low-income "food deserts" as well, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market opened its 43rd grocery store this morning in the hard-scramble, low-income Southern California city of Compton.

The residents of the Southern Los Angeles County city of Compton (which is infamous for being the birthplace of the Crips and the Bloods street gangs) who attended this morning's Fresh & Easy store grand opening were not only surprised by the store's bright decor and extensive product selection, featuring shelves full of everyday grocery items right next to specialty and organic groceries, fresh meats and produce, scores of fresh, prepared foods items and more, they also were shocked to be greated by another British import: British Royal Family member Prince Andrew was at the 10,000 square foot grocery store to meet, greet and welcome shoppers on opening day.

Prince Andrew, Duke of York, who in his youth the British press called "Randy Andy" for his amorous appetite, is now the United Kingdom's (UK) Special Representative for Trade and investment. He attended the Fresh & Easy store grand opening in that official capacity to praise Britain's Tesco for opening a store in the lower-income neighborhood, and to tout his country's retailing talent.

"Congratulations number 43 (the 43rd Fresh & Easy), and good luck with the rest. This is just one small example of what the UK can do in the retail industry," Prince Andrew said in making a brief speech as part of this morning's grand opening ceremonies."

Under the leadership of mayor Eric Perrodin, the city of Compton is working hard to overcome its reputation as the home to gangs and poverty, and to in the mayor's words, "Birth a new Compton." In fact, as part of the store's grand opening ceremony, the mayor presented Prince Andrew with a "Birthing a New Compton" T-shirt and baseball cap, which are marketing tools used in the city's effort to redevelop and improve the community.

The new Compton Fresh & Easy store is a big part of that effort by the mayor, other city officials, business people and communtiy residents. Like many other lower-income cities, Compton has had a difficult time getting grocers, especially those who sell lots of fresh and nutritious foods, to build stores in the community. The city is what Tesco identified in its research, prior to launching the Fresh & Easy format, as "food deserts" in the USA, those mostly urban, inner-city regions (but also in suburbs and rural areas) which have a dearth of grocery stores that offer a selection of basic groceries, along with lots of fresh foods at reasonable prices.

Compton city officials worked hard and closely with Tesco executives to make the brand new store, built from the ground-up, a reality. The store took only one year to build because the city made it a top priority, Kofi Sefa-Boakye, the city's redevelopment agency director said at the grand opening. He praised Fresh & Easy executives and said the store is going to be a big asset to the city and its redevelopment efforts. He added the store would bring in about $200,000 annually in property tax payments to the city's coffers, in addition to providing a sorely-needed grocery store for the community, along with providing new jobs.

The store will employee 22 workers, all part time except for store management, at a starting salary of $10 hour. Fresh & Easy CEO Tim Mason told us all store employees will work a minimum of 20 hours a week so they can qualify for the company's health plan. Employees pay into the health plan as well, and have co-payments for medical office visits and prescription drugs.

Mayor Perrodin, who was first elected in 2001 and made making a "new" Compton his chief campaign goal at the time, said the city had only one full-service grocery store before today, when the new Fresh & Easy opened its doors at 10am. Since the city has a population of nearly 100,000 people, that's a sad and amazing fact. Most Compton residents drive or take public transportation to other nearby cities to do their grocery shopping, a fact Fresh & Easy was well aware of and which was important in the grocer's decision to build a store in the city.

There was a huge crowd at the store this morning waiting for CEO Mason, Prince Andrew, Mayor Perrodin and others to cut the grand opening ribbon so they could go inside and get a look at their new 10,000 square foot grocery store. In fact, if today's crowd is any indication, the store should do a thriving business, despite the fact that many Fresh & Easy stores opened in other parts of Southern California are seeing rather meger store counts thus far.

More than one shopper remarked how happy they were to see the store open. A mother of four said her family of will be regular customers of the new grocery market. Another customer said he makes a 25 minute drive twice a week from his house to shop at a supermarket in a nearby city. "The Fresh & Easy is five minutes from my house," he said. "I'll shop here at least three or four times a week, and maybe more."

Grocery stores, especially those offering a quality selection of fresh and other food and grocery products at reasonable prices, are becoming key to cities throughout America in their redevelopment efforts. There's a trend towards increased urban housing in the U.S., and a desire on the part of a growing number of people of all ages to live in cities again after decades of suburban flight. However, these same people are used to high-quality supermarkets, and they want the same food shopping choices available to them in the city.

In the case of impoverished or lower-income cities like Compton and others, the simple fact is food retailers have in the main either closed existing stores in these cities, especially in the inner-city, or refused to build new stores in them for a variety of reasons--some valid, others not. This is where we think Fresh & Easy's real opportunity is.

Despite the fact they have lower-incomes, inner-city residents tend to spend a higher percentage of their income on food and groceries. Additionally, given the opportunity, they also will purchase fresh prepared foods, organic products and other specialty groceries. The problem is: They haven't had much opportunity to do so in the form of conveniently available grocery stores in their neighborhoods that offer such quality and variety.

Although thus far the vast majority of Tesco's Fresh & Easy grocery markets are in middle and upper-income suburbs, we suggest the grocer focus more on their "food desert" strategy. There's a huge, untapped market in cities throughout the U.S. for neighborhood grocery stores that offer a good selection of reasonably-priced everyday grocery items and more specialty-oriented offerings.

There also are numerous rural communties of ample size in need of neighborhood-style grocery stores. Residents in these rural cities often drive 20 miles or more to shop at bog-box stores. Given an alternative like Fresh & Easy, which sells basic grocery products as well as specialty items, we think many of these residents would flock to such stores located in their cities. We think the "food desert" strategy can, in the long run, be equally--or even more profitable--for Tesco in the U.S. than the middle/upper-income suburban strategy.

(Read an analysis we wrote on December 12, 2007, "Three reasons why Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's venture could be a huge success--and three reasons it could be a historic food retailing failure.")

Is Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market preparing to march on to Chicago from it's Western U.S. base? We believe so, but not for a while.

On November 27, 2007 we were one of the first publications to report that Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market was looking beyond the Western U.S. states of California, Arizona and Nevada, to Chicago, New York and Florida, as new markets for its Fresh & Easy small-format, convenience-oriented grocery stores. (Read our November 27, 2007 piece, "Eastward-Bound for Fresh & Easy," here.

In that piece, we particularly focused on Fresh & Easy's search for a location for a Midwestern region distribution center in the Chicago, Illinois area, as well as its scouting of various locations in and around Chicago for retail store sights.

Today's Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, the city's major daily, is confirming what we and others wrote about three months ago, and adding some new information of its own. Most specifically, today's Sun-Times story says a knowledgeable source told the paper a specific potential Fresh & Easy store site is in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.

Since one of our sources for the November, 2007 piece is a very knowledgeable Chicago-area commercial real estate broker, we tend to feel rather certain Fresh & Easy is looking to the Chicago region, along with New York and Florida, as its next step beyond the Western U.S. Further, we believe Chicago will be first, then perhaps New York and Florida after. We base this on our source's information regarding the talks Fresh & Easy has had (not with him) about the possible distribution center locations in the Chicago region.

Additionally, there have been some quality reports in the British papers, in addition to today's report in the Sun-Times, that mirror what we're being told. We don't see Fresh & Easy starting to build anything in Chicago until mid-to-late 2009 however. The retailer still has many new stores to open in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada this year and into 2009.

It's also going into Northern California beginning later this year, and into 2009. The grocer has 18 store leases already signed in the San Francisco Bay Area, with many more on the way in the coming months. Based on information from our sources, we think the retailer would like to have about 40 -to- 50 stores open and operating in Northern California by the end of 2009.

There's also the matter of sales and store traffic count, which based on our observations, conversations with numerous store-level workers, suppliers and others, aren't all that great to date in the 43 Fresh & Easy stores which have been open. With such a rapid new store-opening clip--about three stores a week since early November--Tesco needs to take some time soon to step-back a bit and do some evaluating and make some changes before the growth-pace outstrips their ability to do so in our view.

A long-struggling Sacramento, California neighborhood has made dramatic quality-of-life improvements, with more on the way--and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will become part of the solution when it opens a new store in the neighborhood next year.

The Oak Park neighborhood in Sacramento, California's Midtown district is in the process of being transformed from a once rundown, "undesireable" neighborhood in the city, to one in which its residents and others in this city of 500,000 are calling an "up-and-comer."

Midtown is one of Sacramento's oldest districts. It's near the city's downtown core and not far from the California state capital building. It's streets are lined with fifty-plus year-old large shade trees, and there are many victorian-style homes in the area.

The Oak Park neighborhood, which is in Midtown, was once a thriving place, especially in the Sacramento of the 1950's and early 1960's. However, it eventually became rundown: the crime rate soared, drugs came to the neighborhood, and businesses, along with working and upper-class families left for the suburbs.

Beginning in the mid-1990's however things started to change thanks to a dedicated group of residents, small business people and a few supporters on the Sacramento City Council and in the City Manager's office. A group called the Oak Park Neighborhood Association, comprised of residents and small business owners, was formed and the group began to lobby city hall for attention. The group also reached out to real estate agents and others, encouraging them to market the neighborhood as a desireable residential location in the city.

The timing was good from a residential point of view in Sacramento. Housing prices were skyrocketing in the city's more "desireable" neighborhoods. Oak Park was a relative bargain. Then, many people discovered the neighborhood's gorgeous but rundown victorian houses and jumped at the chance to buy these houses and renovate them. This activity, along with the opening of a few new, small businesses started a slow but sure turnaround for the neighborhood.

This revitalization of Oak Park has picked up steam in the last couple years, although much remains to be done, especially in the view of the neighborhood association which got the ball rolling in the mid-1990's.

At the top of the group's agenda has been launcnching a major effort over the last few years to get retail businesses to locate stores in the neighborhood so that residents don't have to drive across the city to shop. Chief among their goals has been to get a high-quality grocery store into an empty building in the core of the neighborhood called the Made-Rite property.

Last night at a meeting of the Oak Park Neighborhood Association it was announced that the goal of the activists had been achieved: a 10,000 square foot Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store will go into the empty Made-Rite property building and serve as a local neighborhood grocery store for residents in the growing and prospering neighborhood. The store is scheduled to be open in early 2009, a member of the association told us.

While Sacramento's Oak Park neighborhood isn't quite a "food desert" on the order of Compton, California, which we discussed in our lead story above, it is a neighborhood underserved by food stores and one on the road to rivitalization.

The Fresh & Easy store will become an integral part of Oak Park's experiment in better urban living. A new urban loft residential development called 4th Avenue Lofts is currently being constructed in the neighborhood, the classic Guild Theatre has been renovated, new retail stores are opening, as are restaurants and even an upscale wine bar. The older, tree-lined neighborhood is becoming one of the city's most desireable places to live, especially among young professionals, artists and even suburbanites who are moving back into the city.

Having the Fresh & Easy store come in though is key to what the neighborhood association wants the area to become, a member of the group told us. What Oak Park's residents want is a neighborhood of their own, with a mix of people of all ethnicities and income levels, lots of local shopping choices, a lively street life, and a better quality of life than has previously been the case.

The residents of Oak Park have achieved much of what they want already--and have more to look forward to coming up. Tesco's Fresh & Easy has an opportunity to be a major part of this ongoing quality-of-life improvement--and to gain the loyalty of the neighborhood in the process.

Food & Community Memo [Interactive]: Davis, California Debates Small-Format and Locally-Owned Grocery Stores vs. Chains and Big-Box Stores

A regular reader of Natural~Specialty Foods Memo informed us via an email of a lively debate currently going on in the city of Davis, California, via a blog called The Peoples Vanguard of Davis, about small-format, local neighborhood grocery stores vs. chain supermarkets and big-box stores for the city.

Davis, home to the Davis campus of the University of California, is a city of about 65,000 people. It's located about 11 miles west of Sacramento.

Davis is well-known for both its educational achievements and social and environmental consciousness. For example, it's ranked as the number two city in the U.S. in terms of the number of its residents who have graduate degrees.

Environmentally, Davis is home to one of America's first comprehensive solar energy housing developments called Village Homes. The innovative solar-energy powered subdivision was built in the 1970's, at a time in the U.S. when most city's and private developers hadn't even though about community-based renewable or alternative energy solutions.

The bicycle is one of the primary means of transportation in Davis. The city has the highest per-capita bicycle ownership of any city in the U.S., and its residents use the two-wheeled, pedal-powered vehicles regularly, and for far more than exercise. The city's official logo, pictured at the top of this piece, even features a bicycle graphic.

Davis also has a iconic public transportation system, thanks in large part to a partnership between the University of California campus, which houses about 30,000 students, and the city. Modern, energy-efficient buses, and older, English-style double-decked buses bought from Britain, traverse the entire city nearly 24 hours-a-day providing low-cost public transportation and eliminating the need for the use of private cars for many residents.

The University of California at Davis is one of the top research universities in the U.S. in the areas of agriculture and food distribution. It's a leader in both the areas of large-scale agribusiness research (including biotechnology) and sustainable, or green, agriculture.

The campus also is the number one research university in America in the areas of enology and viticulture (wine growing and making). Additionally, it's become one of the foremost research centers in the U.S. in the fields of alternative and renewable energy, electric and hybrid car development, and other cutting-edge green technologies.

The city has experienced lots of growth and change over the last 20 years, including a more than doubling of its size. That growth has brought lots of new housing, and many new residents who prefer to live in a University town but commute to their jobs in nearby Sacramento, a city of 500,000 people.

The small-format neighborhood grocery store debate taking place on the local blog is lively, interesting, intelligent and timely.

As our readers know from our numerous pieces, there's a small-format food retailing revolution happening in the U.S. The Davis debate is similar to many of those happening in cities across America. The issues include: locally-owned independent grocery stores vs. big-box stores and Supercenters, small-format, more convenient stores vs larger ones, and the affects these formats have on the environment and local, community economies, just to name a few.

Join The Discussion:

We invite you to read the article that got the debate started on The People's Vanguard of Davis Blog, along with the numerous comments and opinions on the blog regarding the issue.

After you've read the blog article and the reader comments, we also invite you to weigh in , using our comments link below, with your thoughts about small-format vs. big box stores, local food retailers vs. chains, and any other thoughts and opinions you have. We look forward to reading what you have to say.