So, why can't we get a Trader Joe here?

People keep asking me "When are we going to get a real grocery store in Downtown East Point?" That's a legitimate question, but the answer requires learning a bit about how the folks who operate grocery stores decide to put a store in one community over another community.

Here is a very straightforward set of location criteria for LIDL grocery stores. The LIDL folks break it down based upon the local context. Is the site in a Suburban setting, a neighborhood center, or a downtown urban setting? Each has a population requirement within the service area and a median income for the service area. The more spread out the development pattern, the more money each household needs to make.

This is pretty much how a retailer looks at a potential location. Where will the customers come from and how much money do most of the potential customers make.

A secondary set of metrics have to do with the other retailers in the same area, competitors and complimentary anchor institutions or retailers. They want to know who else is operating in the same local market area.

We have a 17,000 SF building on Washington Road which would be suitable for LIDL, but our city's median household income is less that the threshold needed to recruit LIDL to East Point.

Our population is 34,875 and our Median Household Income is $40,882. In order to have our site considered by LIDL we need more folks living in East Point and we need folks in East Point to be making more money.

Until the number of people living in East Point increases and until our residents make more money, retailers like LIDL , ALDI, Trader Joes and the rest will continue to locate their stores in places that hit their numbers.

If you google the name of the store you would like to see in your neighborhood with the words "site selection criteria" you can find out pretty quickly what it will take to get their attention.