Carneceria Mexican Food Market in Wichita Planeview neighborhoodSupporters of a proposed Save-A-Lot grocery store in Wichita’s Planeview neighborhood claim that there are no grocery stores nearby. Therefore, the city is willing to grant over $800,000 in special tax treatment to this store. This special tax treatment — let’s call it what it is: corporate welfare — is not available to the store’s competitors that already exist in the neighborhood or nearby.
But Wendy Aylworth’s research and John Todd’s photography show that the claims of the store’s supporters are not true: There are grocery stores — nice ones, too — in Planeview. The Wichita City Council is granting special tax-advantaged status to a competitor to these largely mom-and-pop stores in the form of tax increment financing (TIF) and Community Improvement District additional sales tax.
Click here to view a set of photographs of Planeview grocery stores taken by Todd.