Deep red town's only grocery closed, city hall opened its own store. Just don't call it 'socialism'
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11/22/baldwin-florida-food-desert-city-owned-grocery-store/
BALDWIN, Fla. — When Sean Lynch ran for mayor, he never anticipated that the job would involve hiring a butcher and tracking the sale of collard greens.
But in 2018, two years into his first term, the only grocery store in town shut down. People in Baldwin, Fla., a rural outpost in northeast Florida, were left with few options. They could leave town, driving 10 miles through road construction to nearby Macclenny or battling 20 miles of freeway traffic through Jacksonville’s suburban sprawl. Alternatively, they could cobble together a meal out of canned goods from the local Dollar General, or head to a nearby truck stop for greasy, deep-fried fast food.
For many of Baldwin’s roughly 1,600 residents, though, traveling for food wasn’t really a choice. The town’s median household income of $44,271 is well below the state average, and it’s not uncommon for families to juggle their schedules around sharing one car. Senior citizens also make up a significant percentage of the population, and many no longer drive.
So Lynch came to his colleagues with a proposal: What if the town opened its own grocery store?
Abandoned by mainstream supermarkets whose business models don’t have room for low profit margins, both urban and rural communities nationwide have turned to resident-owned co-ops or nonprofits to fill the gap. But Baldwin is trying something different. At the Baldwin Market, which opened its doors on Sept. 20, all of the employees are on the municipal payroll, from the butcher to the cashiers. Workers from the town’s maintenance department take breaks from cutting grass to help unload deliveries, and residents flag down the mayor when they want to request a specific type of milk.
Beware, this is how those sneaky liberals get you! There is socialism in your food, don't eat it!
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Figured that out, did they?
They need to man up and pull themselves up by their bootstraps and learn to eat their MAGA hats. Damn socialist grocery stores.
it's a slippery slope. Once our rural small towns turn into Venezuela, there's no coming back.
good governance in a red area. Let more of these proliferate, let residents eat better, let them trumpet what "small local government" can accomplish.
And then, when they are proud, happy, and better fed, we can just lean back and say "See now? That didn't hurt a bit. Let's not bicker and argue about what to label this. I say socialism, you say bootstrapping, let's just call it a good idea and go grab a beer to celebrate and see if we can make a plan to help other towns do the same." 
