Alma Plaza (Albertson's): Skepticism of Opponents' position

BPA Position

Some commentary on opponents' objections

• "regional draw": The opponents are vague about why they believe that this will be a "regional draw." There are much larger grocery stores ("mega-stores") at the Palo Alto borders (Safeway in Menlo Park and Safeway and Albertson's on California Avenue in Mountain View).

  Would the Alma Plaza store be enough larger than existing Palo Alto grocery stores to cause people to bypass them in favor of this store? The Midtown Safeway provides a possible counter-point: It does very good business despite nearby mega-stores, presumably because the convenience outweighs the advantages of the mega-stores. Would people who currently patronize Midtown Safeway for the Safeway mega-store in Mountain View (or Albertson's or Costco) bypass it in favor of an intermediate-sized grocery in Alma Plaza?

• Inadequate parking: The concern about overflow parking on adjacent neighborhood streets seems unfounded. If the store's parking lot is inadequate, people are more likely to shift their business to one of the many other grocery stores within reasonable driving distance. The inconvenience of parking outside the store's parking lot is greatly increased by stores using systems that automatically lock the wheels of shopping carts when there is an attempt to take them beyond the parking lot.

• Increased traffic on Alma in peak hours, with diversion onto local streets: It seems unlikely that a significant number of people would choose to get onto Alma during peak hours simply to get to this store. Given that there are so many alternate choices for grocery stores, people would seem more likely to go to one that is closer to their existing commute route, or they would go to the Alma Plaza store outside of peak hours.