The closing of the Walmart near Central and San Mateo has been a crushing blow to area residents who say they have nothing to replace a resource that provided affordable pharmaceuticals, vision care, clothing, and food. Now they are asking the city to provide some solutions.
A community group called the Health Equity Council has started a petition to pressure the city to bring new grocers to the International District. “What we want to do is ask the city to help encourage those services back into the community as quickly as possible, and also to make sure that the building doesn’t become a nuisance,” Enrique Cardiel, Executive Director of the Health Equity Council told KRQE.
In December, Walmart announced company-wide closures due to retail theft. The company said the San Mateo location was closing in March due to the store “underperforming.”
City officials have said they’re working with the state to raise money to ultimately buy and redevelop the property from Walmart. And earlier this month, state lawmakers secured a collective $2 million in capital outlay funding that could go toward a future acquisition or project on the site.
But that’s not helping area residents left without a neighborhood grocery store.
Jimmy Armijo, 82, told KRQE he used to take the bus to shop at the Walmart near Central. After it closed its doors, he must travel to stores farther away, making his trip four times longer. “I might have to make two trips instead of one trip a week,” Armijo, an International District resident, said.
Councilor Pat Davis said the city is providing economic development money to lure local grocers to start a business in southeast Albuquerque. Many of those local grocers were there before Walmart arrived and nearly put them out of business.
“They left because Walmart put them out of business; and then when Walmart couldn’t extract any more money out of that neighborhood, they packed up and left too,” Davis told KRQE.
To incentivize businesses to open shop, the city will help subsidize rent and even lower property taxes for property owners or retailers with services like food and pharmaceuticals. “We’re not going to solve the grocery store desert by waiting on Walmart,” Davis said. “That’s going to be years before that process is ready to move forward, but people are hungry and they don’t need to travel all over right now.”