Ralph Nader and the Urban Grocery

It always amazes me how quickly people can turn when their need for instant gratification isn't met.

A Zogby pole conducted in late August found that over the preceding six weeks, support for Barack Obama fell a whopping 18 percent among liberal voters aged 18 to 29 years. This is when it was being suggested that Obama may not find it possible to abandon the Afghan war right away and may entertain a compromise in order to pass healthcare reform legislation. Lower support will translate to fewer of these voters turning out for crucial mid-term elections, or to their votes shifting to fringe left candidates who don't have a real chance of getting elected.

One consequence of this last phenomenon was evident in the presidential election of 2000, when Ralph Nader's candidacy drew votes away from Al Gore and effectively put George W. Bush in the White House. How many well-meaning but short-sighted liberals ended up saying "oops" after that?

There's more than a little of this short-sightedness surrounding some Phoenix residents' reception of the Urban Grocery and Wine Bar.

If you're one of the privileged few, you will have read here about the wonderful fact that Phoenix now has a store right in the middle of downtown where we can get farm-fresh produce five days a week during regular hours. The store also serves food and wine that patrons can enjoy on-site or back at home. It's not perfect. For one thing, it's small and therefore its assortment is limited. It's run by a not-for-profit entity, and at the moment can't afford to stay open seven days.

Just the same, isn't this a step up? Won't downtown dwellers who have been clamoring for this for decades bend over backward to show their support? Isn't it better than nothing? Doesn't the fact that it DOES have farm-fresh produce, fresh bread, pasta, and candy mean that it gets at least 3 out of 5 stars for merely existing?

Not according to some people on social networking sites such as Yelp.com. "Glen D." of Phoenix writes that he's "been waiting for a grocery store downtown for almost 5 years." You might think he'd be really happy to have his five-year dream come true, but you'd be wrong. "...I do my grocery shopping on Sunday...but they are closed. Try and go back Monday...they are closed. At this point, I really need those items and I'm just going to buy them from a normal store." Great job showing your support, Glen D.!

His tag line says, "I act real shallow when I'm in too deep." Boy oh boy, Glen D. of Phoenix must be in really REALLY deep. I can't emphasize enough how "in deep" I think Glen D. of Phoenix is. So deep, in fact, that instead of reading the store hours on the door, he just keeps coming back day after day. D'oh! That's deep, Homer - I mean Glen D of Phoenix.

I won't go too far into the fact that his wife writes a second two-star review on top of his. Don't know what that's about, unless her father is Mr. Safeway or something. Please get a different hobby, guys. Remember that episode of Extreme Makeover you Tivo'd last week? It's calling you.

So...The reason for the tiresome paragraph on politics at the beginning was to underscore how sometimes we humans unwittingly do ourselves in by not seeing the big picture. I don't want supporters of a downtown farm-to-table grocery to end up saying "oops" because they fail to support the Urban Grocery and Wine Bar and thereby lose the only chance Phoenix has had in decades of making a permanent farmers' market a reality.

This is a sprout, if you will, that needs to be sheltered and nourished if it's ever going to flourish. It has City backing and an entity with full non-profit 501c-3 status running it. This is our best shot, Phoenix. It will grow or die based upon its viability as a business, for sure; but for us to doom it because it isn't perfect would be...that's right...voting for Nader.