Menin on supporting existing bodegas near new grocery stores

And what is EDC's plans to support pre-existing bodegas that are in the area, small grocery stores that have been there for years?

How is EDC going to support those businesses so they're not driven out of business?

Yeah, so as I mentioned that the

that we did select neighborhoods that really had a shortage of grocery by cities measures.

So, because part of it is food, part of the goal is food affordability as well as food accessibility.

So before we announced the grocery store initiative,

A few months ago, we did reach out to bodega associations and the National Supermarket Association to inform them of our initial plan.

Once each site has been announced, La Marqueta and then now Peninsula, we have met with the bodega owners in the area.

And we'll continue, and same thing is happening with Peninsula.

And we will continue to do that.

During the

of the grocery store initiative when it opens and throughout the operation.

So we really want to work with the bodega owners to make sure.

I would say that, again, this is a regular grocery store, but the core basket of goods is going to be set and limited.

It's not really, some of the stuff that the bodega owners offer, we're not going to have.

And some of the largest profiting items we're not going to have discounted.

So I think that there's going to be, we're hoping that we can even like direct traffic to bodega owners with more foot traffic because there's not going to be as much of an overlap as people might think.

But we are going to find ways to try to support them, and we're going to work through that.