Comments on: Wasted Tax Dollars: the Highland Square Grocer Debacle http://www.itireakron.org/2008/05/20/articles/action/wasted-tax-dollars-the-highland-square-grocer-debacle Akron's community resource. Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:17:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Kman http://www.itireakron.org/2008/05/20/articles/action/wasted-tax-dollars-the-highland-square-grocer-debacle/comment-page-1#comment-18 Kman Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:52:03 +0000 http://www.itireakron.org/?p=11#comment-18 I spent the better part of my college career working at the former Highland Square Star Mart (once Sparkle Mart), and the situation Highland Square residents have faced is a personal one. Besides the 20 or so friends who lost jobs in the process, there are a large number of local residents who relied on having the store within walking distance. It is a little known fact that the week after the Sparkle closed, the drug store across the street was #1 in the nation in milk and bread sales. We're talking about sustenance and convenience. There are a large number of elderly and low-income residence who needed the Sparkle there day to day. J.T. Henretta, owner of the store, offered to reopen in a new retail space if the city was willing to build. Between Plusquellic and Albrecht, that will never happen. Albrecht has extinguished one more competitor. Decades ago, the Henrettas owned a number of Sparkle Marts in the downtown Akron area. Those are gone, and only one grocery store exists in the Downtown area (Dave's on Exchange St). Maybe this is a product of the move to the suburbs and urban sprawl, maybe it would have happened without city influence as a natural by-product of population shifts. Highland Square will change, and people who need to live near a grocery store will eventually move out of the area. The Square will change, life will go on. I still feel like a piece of my past has needlessly been torn down, and that one more brick has been pulled out of the Jenga tower. How many can we pull out until Akron no longer a place people want to live...until it is simply a place to work because the highways lead there? I spent the better part of my college career working at the former Highland Square Star Mart (once Sparkle Mart), and the situation Highland Square residents have faced is a personal one. Besides the 20 or so friends who lost jobs in the process, there are a large number of local residents who relied on having the store within walking distance. It is a little known fact that the week after the Sparkle closed, the drug store across the street was #1 in the nation in milk and bread sales. We’re talking about sustenance and convenience. There are a large number of elderly and low-income residence who needed the Sparkle there day to day. J.T. Henretta, owner of the store, offered to reopen in a new retail space if the city was willing to build. Between Plusquellic and Albrecht, that will never happen. Albrecht has extinguished one more competitor. Decades ago, the Henrettas owned a number of Sparkle Marts in the downtown Akron area. Those are gone, and only one grocery store exists in the Downtown area (Dave’s on Exchange St).

Maybe this is a product of the move to the suburbs and urban sprawl, maybe it would have happened without city influence as a natural by-product of population shifts. Highland Square will change, and people who need to live near a grocery store will eventually move out of the area. The Square will change, life will go on.

I still feel like a piece of my past has needlessly been torn down, and that one more brick has been pulled out of the Jenga tower. How many can we pull out until Akron no longer a place people want to live…until it is simply a place to work because the highways lead there?

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