Food is political, and therefore community gardens are a political action. We need to grasp at every opportunity to operate beyond our capitalist structure and recognize the power we have to affect our current reality. 

Kroger has not even stated that shoplifting is the primary purpose for the closure of this store. They have gone as far as to deny it in some places. This idea was just something that the community came to, possibly because we are so primed to allow corporations to blame the consumer rather than accept culpability. Our society constantly frames social issues around crime, and its relationship to policing in our communities.

The benefits of a city or state owned grocery store are that they are not for profit, and could be priced based on cost, and operating expenses, which would pass on savings to the consumer. This system has the staggering ability to combat price gouging at privately owned grocery stores that some have dubbed “greedflation.”