Quote Originally Posted by bchris02 View Post
There are two big problems with the grocery market in OKC. One is how deeply entrenched Wal-Mart is. While Wal-Mart is stiff competition with mid-tier grocers everywhere, nowhere do they have the kind of market dominance that they do in OKC. The second is the alcohol laws here. Mid-tier grocers are being squeezed from the high end and the low end across the country. Many of them have focused on providing an extensive selection of beer and wine, wine tastings, etc in order to increase their profit because that's a very profitable market. The downtown Harris Teeter in Charlotte, during its early days, focused heavily on its beer/wine section. Problem is in Oklahoma they can't sell wine and they are stuck with 3.2 beer.

I am hoping that within a few years after the new liquor laws go into effect that the grocery market here corrects itself.
The overriding mindset here is it has to be cheap; I think that hurts the grocery market more than the liquor sales issue. You can see it in the shopping options whether we are talking food or cars or clothing, or if we're talking about our governmental services, or even if we are talking about our historic structures and museums (e.g. the discussion always gets into money... there is never a "for the sake of art/beauty" argument). It's at the same time both this state's strongest point as well as its weakest.

We have a lot of poor people, and so of course value-focused chains are going to be more successful here than in the statistically average city. I think we need to be realistic and come to terms with certain realities here. That does not mean that we cannot have nice things. But I think it does mean we are not going to see a wave of Quality Company X populating every street corner for a long, long time if ever.