It’s Good To Live In A Two-Daily Town (Hi-Lo Foods Edition)

Everything you need to know about the difference between the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald is encapsulated in their respective ledes about a new supermarket replacing a neighborhood fixture in the Hyde Square section of Jamaica Plain.

From Thursday’s Herald:

A Whole Foods incursion into earthy-crunchy Jamaica Plain is sparking a culture clash between fans of the posh chain and local shoppers loyal to a popular Hispanic market the gourmet grocer is replacing.

But what’s a “popular Hispanic market” in the Herald is something else entirely in the Globe:

For Jamaica Plain’s eclectic mix of hipsters, affluent professionals, and working-class Latinos, there has been no starker symbol of transformation in their neighborhood than the one announced yesterday: The tumble-down Latino grocery Hi-Lo Foods will close its doors and reopen as a sparkling new Whole Foods Market.

The transition from tumble-down to sparkling new is part of what the Globe labels an “inexorable shift” in the neighborhood.

Others might call it something stronger.

I lived in Hyde Square when I first moved to Boston in the mid-’70s, and I shopped at the Hi-Lo all the time, since my earnings in that decade peaked at around $7000 per annum.

Truth is, Hi-Lo was a mess.

But it was our mess.

Now, in the new-not-necessarily-improved Jamaica Plain, that space belongs to them.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to It’s Good To Live In A Two-Daily Town (Hi-Lo Foods Edition)

  1. Pingback: Hi Lo vs Whole Foods: Fight! | Destiny's Darlin'

  2. Pingback: WSJ: Hi-LoDown On Jamaica Plain Food Fight | Campaign Outsider

Leave a comment