Good Food Market Chestnut Hill - being targeted by disgrutled NIMBYs??

**Malloy** · 03-10-2010, 01:43 PM

Check this out:

It is hard to be optimistic and cheerful all the time when you really feel like people are out to get you. Sound paranoid?!! -- I never used to be paranoid - now, I am really convinced that I'm being harassed. Good Food Market is being attacked by "someone" who is determined to shut down our prepared food case or bankrupt us with legal fees trying to prove our innocence.

Read on:
http://goodfoodchestnuthill.blogspot...ust-serve.html

We all know that there were some neighbors who didn't want GFM to open. They were worried about losing parking spots.

**The Count** · 03-10-2010, 01:54 PM

The politics of Chestnut Hill are brutal.

**BenDee** · 03-10-2010, 02:18 PM

Originally Posted by The Count

The politics of Chestnut Hill are brutal.

It's why Mt. Airy is up and coming while CH is slowly crumbling. Good luck getting anything nice in the old Borders.

**stock** · 03-10-2010, 03:59 PM

What an A$$. Don't they have anything better to do?

**PhillyKev** · 03-10-2010, 04:18 PM

Sounds like the work of SuzieW

**m.leland** · 03-10-2010, 04:37 PM

I live across the street and parking is hardly an issue. The furthest I've had to park from my house is less than half a block. I hope GFM sticks around.

**Malloy** · 03-10-2010, 04:42 PM

Originally Posted by m.leland

I live across the street and parking is hardly an issue. The furthest I've had to park from my house is less than half a block. I hope GFM sticks around.

Oh, ok. Why were people protesting it?

**m.leland** · 03-10-2010, 04:45 PM

Originally Posted by Malloy

Oh, ok. Why were people protesting it?

We just moved in a few weeks ago. I have no idea. There's not much foot traffic to speak of; parking is a non-issue. Great group of people; even referred me to another business when they were out of something I was looking for. Somebody with connections must have a bug up their ass.

**Longboat** · 03-10-2010, 04:45 PM

Originally Posted by The Count

The politics of Chestnut Hill are brutal.

Yes, but also quite amusing for us nearby but not in it observers. Nothing entertains like rich folk behaving badly.

**eldondre** · 03-10-2010, 04:54 PM

more than that, this, like the threa on the FAA and the plcb shenanigans, is another example of BUREAUCRACY ruining PA (it may be our largest problem).

... I guess I picked the wrong time to open up a grocery store because the Department of Licensing and Inspection is in the process of trying to rewrite codes ... caught in the middle of an open discussion at L&I about what this code actually means. ...I am told that the zoning code has been the same since 1940. Under this code, a C1 building such as 12 W. Willow Grove Avenue can be home to a grocery store. This grocery store can sell meats, pharmaceuticals, confections, packaged goods, dairy, bakery goods, produce and many other things typically sold by grocery stores. Since the people who wrote this code knew that it would be around for a while and that retail evolves, they added a final paragraph that stated a grocery store in C1 can also have "accessory" use to provide the exact services that all other grocery stores have provided that it doesn't take up more that 25% of the square footage of the establishment. Now, let me ask you: do you know any other grocery store in the United States that DOESN'T have a prepared food case and deli counter?
... So finally, I... called the person that really should know -- Jeanne Klinger, the head of L&I...she answered the phone and she was very polite, so patient and took her time to speak with me. I was bold and I asked her why every other grocery store can have a deli case but I cannot. She didn't say that I couldn't, but she didn't say I could either. Her reply was that L&I isn't sure that THOSE grocery stores should be allowed to have the cases, either.
... why can they continue doing what every grocery store in the US does but I can't?

And I have to complain here, I don't think this is a fair spot to put an already-challenged small business in! If the L&I battle is with corporate grocery stores, why are they using me as the example? Do you think ShopRite cares if I live or die? Do you think shutting my deli case down is going to give the legal precedence to win a case against corporate lawyers?

I'm writing this because I want you to understand that Good Food Market is in danger of extinction and the people who want that to happen are using horribly nasty tactics to accomplish their mission.

Good Food Market: Why Can't Good Food Market Just Serve The Neighborhood What It Wants?

**billy ross** · 03-10-2010, 05:06 PM

Originally Posted by m.leland

We just moved in a few weeks ago. I have no idea. There's not much foot traffic to speak of; parking is a non-issue. Great group of people; even referred me to another business when they were out of something I was looking for. Somebody with connections must have a bug up their ass.

I don't think it's so much a person with connections as it is a person who is persistent in generating complaints against this operation. It really is sad that a locally-owned store trying to do good is harassed by small-minded people who live in fear and use the government to harass people for them. If the owners of this operation read this, I recommend that you get the CHCA to ask L & I to back off. A nicely written letter should suffice. L & I isn't allowed to ignore complaints, and it needs some cover if it is going to sweep this under the rug, which is what clearly should happen. If the CHCA isn't willing to support this store, then there's no hope.

**stock** · 03-11-2010, 07:01 AM

Someone there want's them to fail. The building inspector was offered a tape of the the crew doing the work on the place when it was being built in case he needed any help finding stuff wrong. Someone had set up a video camera around there and was filming/watching the construction.

**Jim Black** · 03-11-2010, 10:25 PM

Originally Posted by Longboat

Yes, but also quite amusing for us nearby but not in it observers. Nothing entertains like rich folk behaving badly.

I don't think that any of the local neighbors would be considered rich. There are no mansions near by.

**Jim Black** · 03-11-2010, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by billy ross

I don't think it's so much a person with connections as it is a person who is persistent in generating complaints against this operation. It really is sad that a locally-owned store trying to do good is harassed by small-minded people who live in fear and use the government to harass people for them. If the owners of this operation read this, I recommend that you get the CHCA to ask L & I to back off. A nicely written letter should suffice. L & I isn't allowed to ignore complaints, and it needs some cover if it is going to sweep this under the rug, which is what clearly should happen. If the CHCA isn't willing to support this store, then there's no hope.

There was clearly someone with political connections fighting them on the zoning variance, but I do agree with your point Billy

**The Count** · 03-12-2010, 08:31 AM

For what it's worth, the story I got from a CH resident and Weaver's Way member was that Weaver's Way and it's investors were afraid that Good Food was going to steal their business.

Additionally, Weaver's was still trying to raise about $2 million in private funding from donors/investors/members and they were concerned that the presence of Good Food would inhibit their ability to raise funds as potential investors would be nervous now that there was competition in the hood.

It was Weaver's people that mounted a concerted protest against Good Food and started throwing all kinds of obstacles in their way thinking that if they can inhibit their ability to serve prepared foods made on-site, as well as coffee, then the market would ultimately fail.

This particular member did not agree with the approach, was upset about it, and felt like the two stores complimented each other more than competed with each other.

(As an aside, I was talking to a CH resident at Racquet Club of Philadelphia and when I asked him if he'd been to Good Food yet, he just replied, "They're going to put the boots to that place.")

**BenDee** · 03-12-2010, 09:05 AM

Originally Posted by The Count

For what it's worth, the story I got from a CH resident and Weaver's Way member was that Weaver's Way and it's investors were afraid that Good Food was going to steal their business.

Additionally, Weaver's was still trying to raise about $2 million in private funding from donors/investors/members and they were concerned that the presence of Good Food would inhibit their ability to raise funds as potential investors would be nervous now that there was competition in the hood.

It was Weaver's people that mounted a concerted protest against Good Food and started throwing all kinds of obstacles in their way thinking that if they can inhibit their ability to serve prepared foods made on-site, as well as coffee, then the market would ultimately fail.

This particular member did not agree with the approach, was upset about it, and felt like the two stores complimented each other more than competed with each other.

I think I asked this in a previous thread, but what status does this person have as a WW member? Are they on the board, volunteer extra time, or are they just a member?

I ask this because the people of CH/MA are extremely gossipy, and the only place an average member would hear something like this would be in the checkout line or from a front-line employee. Both of those are extremely vulnerable to 'whisper-down-the-lane', and if I had to guess, the starting point of it would be one of the managers/board members saying something to the effect of 'we aren't thrilled to have the Good Food Market in CH, but we aren't going to fight it'.

If anything, it's a rogue individual doing it without the approval, or little to no knowledge, of the rest of the top-level staff and board members.

FWIW, I'm a member there, and have shopped there with my parents since the late '80s, and neither I nor my parents have heard nothing of the sort.

**The Count** · 03-12-2010, 09:11 AM

Originally Posted by BenDee

I think I asked this in a previous thread, but what status does this person have as a WW member? Are they on the board, volunteer extra time, or are they just a member?

I ask this because the people of CH/MA are extremely gossipy, and the only place an average member would hear something like this would be in the checkout line or from a front-line employee. Both of those are extremely vulnerable to 'whisper-down-the-lane', and if I had to guess, the starting point of it would be one of the managers/board members saying something to the effect of 'we aren't thrilled to have the Good Food Market in CH, but we aren't going to fight it'.

If anything, it's a rogue individual doing it without the approval, or little to no knowledge, of the rest of the top-level staff and board members.

FWIW, I'm a member there, and have shopped there with my parents since the late '80s, and neither I nor my parents have heard nothing of the sort.

I don't know.

I don't know how Weaver's Way works and I don't know if this person was on the "board" or just a "member".

She was an attorney, seemed to know a LOT of detail about the situation, and was going to attend some meeting about it (this was months ago).

**Tocchet** · 03-12-2010, 09:46 AM

I cannot follow GFM's position here. First she says that they haven't received any formal notices from L&I, but then she makes it sound like L&I is forcing them to close down the prepared foods/deli case. But she also says that the head of L&I admits that the provision at issue is ambiguous and that the industry practice is and has been that stores such as GFM have been allowed to operate prepared foods/deli cases....just as L&I approved GFM to do only about a year ago. Granted, I'm not L&I expert, but I just don't see L&I unilaterally changing the interpretation of the existing code and applying it to only GFM. L&I would know that they'd have no legs to stand on if they did that. And even if they changed the code to prohibit these cases, I doubt that they'd be able to make it apply against GFM, Acme, Superfresh, etc. in PHiladelphia.

In other words, GFM's own complaints here don't add up to me.

Just guessing, but I think that GFM hasn't met its own rosy predictions of success and now they're using these "bully" complaints as an excuse for their problems and future closure. (And I should add that I've been there numerous times, think that they're a great addition to the neighborhood and wish that they were successful and are able to survive.)

**GFM** · 03-19-2010, 10:16 AM

Wow! I was amazed to find this thread. Thank you all for being interested in GFM's plight, whatever your reason. I am Jennifer, the owner. I wanted to let you know that I just heard from my landlord's lawyer that the zoning permit has been fixed and the case is no longer threatened. (Phew)!

I also wanted to say that I am impressed with the level of insight and interest I read here. I think all your comments are fair. Some are a little disturbing but fair. Toccot is correct that I have been confused by all this and haven't really explained it well because I also don't understand how this all happened, who is "to blame" and what it all meant in the end. He is also very smart to hypothesize that it is tough opening a small business and we are fighting to survive. When we lost the variance downtown, I was caught by surprise and didn't realize that the impact would be catastrophic to morning and lunchtime business. Luckily, our evening business has been great but I'm not confident that can carry us. When new legal battles show their nastiness ahead, I feel wary and I am concerned that we might not be able to weather them. But I guess, such is the plight of countless small businesses in Philadelphia right now.

I will never profess to being a brilliant or politically-savvy business person. I had a dream and I wrote what I thought was a really well-thought out business plan (that unfortunately didn't count on this opposition). And then I closed my eyes and jumped. There are many things that I wish I could have changed, there are many things I hope to fix. But I will always try to be honest and true to my belief that this is supposed to be a good thing for my community first, hopefully one day profitable second.

**Malloy** · 03-19-2010, 10:29 AM

Hey Jennifer, there are quite a few folks in East Falls who go to GFM in the evening. My gf is one of them, and we love what you have going on there. I wish we had something like it in EF! Keep up the good work.