[NFBMT] Twitter

[Bruce&Joy Breslauer]

I saw this post from the Colorado Center for the Blind on Twitter, and
thought you might find it interesting, not because the store is closing, but
because of the attitudes toward the closure.  Sometimes our attitudes make
all the difference in determining whether we face a problem or a possibility
regarding life's occurrences, big or small. 

 

CCB Says "Farewell and Thanks!" to Walmart's Neighborhood Market

March 23, 2017

Written by Dan Burke

a smiling woman with a cart full of groceries outside the store

 

Lynne did her mini-meal shopping at the Walmart Neighborhood Market in early
2017. She planned, shopped, prepared and served for 15 people.

 

Over the past six months or so, news that Walmart was closing a number of its
Neighborhood Markets in the Denver Metro area resulted in a sigh of relief

for us at the Colorado Center for the Blind. Each time, the store near our
student apartments at S. Lowell Blvd and W. Bowles Ave. wasn't on the list.

In January, another store closure was announced, this time on Sheridan. Whew!
Close call!

 

Our luck ran out though. Earlier this month we learned that the store where
our students do most of their shopping would also fall under the axe, closing
April 7.

 

The first reaction naturally was shock and disbelief. Students won't be able
to walk across the street to get their groceries anymore! That was also the

response of citizens in the community, one of whom made several phone calls
on our behalf. Some thought we should take it to the press, to the Mayor. We

declined.

 

That's because that first reaction lasted about five minutes. For some of the
old hands, not much longer than a shrug. The thing is, it's been great for

our students to have Walmart's Neighborhood Market just a few steps away for
the past five years, but there were 24 years of CCB history before that when

a supermarket wasn't just across the street, and there will be decades more
after April 7. Our students and alums achieve their success on the basis of

skills, confidence and the belief that they can live the lives they want, and
that doesn't depend - can't depend - on the location of one grocery store.

That will never change.

 

"We're teaching our students to live in the real world," says Executive
Director Julie Deden. "This is the real world."

 

A grocery store closing like this can be a blow to a neighborhood, of course.
Everyone in the area who relied on the store will have to adjust. There are

other options open to us that are available via RTD - choices that were there
before Walmart opened. Like all the rest of the Neighborhood Market shoppers,

we'll figure out the alternatives and move on. It will be all right. That's
what we teach, and that's why our tag line is "Take Charge with Confidence

and Self-reliance". This is a real-world lesson in putting that tag line into
practice.

 

When the Colorado Center for the Blind was forced in 2012 by reductions in
RTD services at its former location at Mineral and Platte Canyon to find new

housing for our students, it was just a happy coincidence that Walmart was
building one of its first Neighborhood Markets across the street on the site

of an old Albertson's. But that wasn't why we chose the apartments now known
as the McGeorge Mountain Terrace. It was a bonus, but not a deal-maker. In

fact, our students had done fine down south for years without a supermarket
across the road. It was the loss of convenient transportation to get to the

stores or anywhere else that forced the move.  

 

The National Federation of the Blind of Colorado

 protested vigorously at the loss of RTD service, but this isn't like that
situation. It might make sense to protest to a public entity like RTD for
cutting

service, it doesn't make the same kind of sense to protest to keep a grocery
store open that isn't economically viable for the corporation, and especially

not when there are reasonable options still available. Certainly, though our
students have done the vast majority of their shopping at the Neighborhood

Market, other people have to shop there too. We wouldn't expect the store to
remain open at a loss just to serve blind people.

 

Thanks Walmart!

 

In the past five years Walmart has truly been a neighbor and a partner,
donating five shopping carts at their opening for the use of our students,
cash for various fund-raisers, and especially providing gracious shopping
assistance and service to our students. This week, a couple of the store's
employees stopped by to talk with Center staff about the possible fallout for
our students. We appreciate that kind of concern from our neighbors. And we
send it right back - we wish all the employees of the Neighborhood Market on
W. Bowles Ave. who will be displaced by the closure all the best. Where are
they going?

Talk about real-world!

 

Joy Breslauer, President

National Federation of the Blind of Montana 

Web Site:  <http://www.nfbofmt.org/> http://www.nfbofmt.org

 

Live the life you want

 

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.