Grocery Store

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has announced plans to open a Neighborhood Market grocery store in Altadena, part of a concerted push by the world's largest retailer into the competitive California supermarket business. The 28,000-square-foot store will be located at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Figueroa Drive in a space once occupied by a thrift store, the company said Thursday. “We think Wal-Mart can be part of the solution in the Altadena community for residents who want more affordable options close to home," said Steven Restivo, Wal-Mart's senior director for community affairs.

Angelenos like their freeways to be free (although they differ on what it means for highway access to be free). That's the sentiment expressed by the half a dozen reader responses to USC public policy professor Peter Gordon's letter last Saturday urging motorists to be patient with Los Angeles' experiment in congestion pricing on the 10 and 110 freeways. Gordon's lengthy letter discussed a Times article reporting that while traffic on the 110 toll lanes has sped up since their conversion from solely carpool lanes, it has slowed on the rest of the lanes.

In a bid to fight childhood obesity and change eating habits on the local level, First Lady Michelle Obama is expected to announce a healthful food financing initiative Wednesday that aims to draw grocery stores into so-called food desert areas in California. The $200-million program, dubbed the California FreshWorks Fund, is a joint effort by the California Endowment and a team of grocery industry groups, healthcare organizations and leading Wall Street banks. Modeled after similar funds launched in New York City and Pennsylvania, the idea for the California fund was hatched about 18 months ago by the California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation.

A mother charged with murder in the drownings of her two young girls in the bathtub of their South Los Angeles home committed suicide while in jail, an L.A. County sheriff's spokesman confirmed. The death of Lorna Valle, 33, was reported Feb. 23 at the Lynwood jail but was not made public by sheriff's officials. Los Angeles County coroner's officials said Valle, who was awaiting trial, died of asphyxiation after placing a bag over her head. Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Valle died at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood but denied the department had anything to hide, noting jail officials do not routinely release identities of those who commit suicide while in custody.

Lest men get lost in the feminine hygiene section or the towering array of probiotic yogurts, a New York grocery store has created a testosterone haven: a so-called man aisle stocked with all the goods a dude could desire. It's a supermarket man cave of sorts, according to the New York Post . The dedicated aisle at Westside Market NYC features steak sauce, condoms, booze, deodorant, razors and other gentlemanly necessities. The grocery store's selection of beer sits next to the special section, dubbed the "Aisle of Man. " Elsewhere in the market, customers can find more evolved fare, such as Apollinaris sparkling mineral water imported from Germany, organic produce and Kashkaval cheese.

After the merger between Ralphs and Hughes supermarkets, the state attorney general ordered that 19 of the Southern California stores be sold or closed for antitrust reasons. The Times article, "Merger Eating Away at Possible Buyers of 19 Ralphs / Hughes Stores," (Aug. 11) said that because so many mergers are going on, Ralphs is now finding it difficult to find a buyer for these stores. Many months ago I wrote protesting plans to close the Ralphs store in Central Plaza in Camarillo.

It's like one of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books you loved as a kid. When Roberta Valderrama auditioned for TBS' new series "10 Items or Less," about life working in a supermarket, producers handed her an actual application to the grocery store where the show is set. In filling out the form, she scribbled a character into existence that day: Yolanda Nelson, she wrote, mother of three and a former security guard fired for sporting oversized hoop earrings.

At one level, the debate over whether to allow Wal-Mart to open a grocery store in Chinatown seems like a big fuss over something fairly small. The store would be just 33,000 square feet and would sell only groceries and sundries; it would not be a "superstore. " The new market would create some jobs and offer some inexpensive products, but it would hardly revolutionize the local economy or bring relief to a food desert. Chinatown already has more than a dozen markets, as well as bakeries and other food outlets.

Foes of a planned Wal-Mart grocery store in Chinatown filed a lawsuit Thursday against the city of Los Angeles seeking to bar the chain market from opening. The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance L.A., working with the Southeast Asian Community Alliance, said the city's Community Redevelopment Agency board failed to review the Chinatown project before building permits were awarded for the planned supermarket. The nonprofit groups contend that a redevelopment vote was required and are seeking to have the building permits rescinded.

In staffing his organic-oriented Fresco Community Market in Montecito Heights early last year, Jon Murga looked for employees in an unlikely place: skid row. He hired 11 people then and one this month through a job development program at the Los Angeles Mission. Most were trying to stay off drugs, alcohol or both as they struggled to exit the ranks of the homeless. Some were trying to put criminal convictions in the past. To Murga, 47, it is the right thing for employers in the community to do: "It's possible to change the conversation about the homeless situation.

Foes of a planned Wal-Mart grocery store in Chinatown filed a lawsuit Thursday against the city of Los Angeles seeking to bar the chain market from opening. The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance L.A., working with the Southeast Asian Community Alliance, said the city's Community Redevelopment Agency board failed to review the Chinatown project before building permits were awarded for the planned supermarket. The nonprofit groups contend that a redevelopment vote was required and are seeking to have the building permits rescinded.

It used to be that radicchio was one of those oddball vegetables that you could find in the grocery store but not very often at farmers markets. That's because early on everyone except for a couple of big farmers had a difficult time growing it. Now, with a better choice of seeds and better knowledge of growing practices, radicchio is becoming more available. There are many varieties of radicchio. Most of what we see at farmers markets is Treviso, which comes in a red, round head. It is mildly bitter and makes a good salad ingredient.

AUSTIN, Texas -- It was the final day of the South by Southwest music festival and conference and Echo Park-based band NO  had just completed its last performance of the week, this one on the rooftop of a grocery store. It was the band's eighth show in five days, or maybe its ninth -- lead singer Bradley Hanan Carter, his voice slightly strained after the performance, had lost count.  NO was just one of about 2,500 bands performing in Austin at this year's festival, hoping to snare the attention of approximately 10,000 registrants who each day had more than 100 stages of music to choose from.

Assi Natural Market carries dozens of kimchi products. There are more than 200 kinds of dumplings. Its carts mimic the red and green of Sriracha sauce bottles. All of which seems to indicate a pretty standard Asian grocery. But once it opens this month in Irvine, Assi aspires to be a hybrid of cultures - like the growing and increasingly moneyed population of second-generation Asian Americans it hopes to draw into its aisles. The goal, manager Thomas Yoon said, is to become the Whole Foods of ethnic supermarkets.

Dekopons, the so-called Sumo mandarins , have hit the market in a big way this year. There was a scattering of them available last year, but now, for the first time, they are in pretty wide circulation. You can find almost everything you need to know about them in David Karp's stories over the last couple of years. The guy who knows more about fruit than anyone should says Dekopons are the most delicious citrus he's ever tasted. But I've been hearing lots of reports of pretty extreme variation in quality this year.

The name of the town sings out from a plain green road sign on Route 248 in eastern Pennsylvania. Beersville. One mile ahead. No giant stone pretzels or statues shaped like suds-filled steins mark the entrance to the Northampton County town. Instead, the highway signs stop saying Beersville and start mentioning Klecknersville. Did you miss it? Turns out Beersville, about an hour and a half northwest of Philadelphia, is easy to miss. It has a Facebook page. On it, BeerNerd Beer, Stewart Kraft Brewer, and a guy who calls himself Rickie Bobbie who went to "Nasbar University," all claim to live in Beersville.

The name of the town sings out from a plain green road sign on Route 248 in eastern Pennsylvania. Beersville. One mile ahead. No giant stone pretzels or statues shaped like suds-filled steins mark the entrance to the Northampton County town. Instead, the highway signs stop saying Beersville and start mentioning Klecknersville. Did you miss it? Turns out Beersville, about an hour and a half northwest of Philadelphia, is easy to miss. It has a Facebook page. On it, BeerNerd Beer, Stewart Kraft Brewer, and a guy who calls himself Rickie Bobbie who went to "Nasbar University," all claim to live in Beersville.

A mother charged with murder in the drownings of her two young girls in the bathtub of their South Los Angeles home committed suicide while in jail, an L.A. County sheriff's spokesman confirmed. The death of Lorna Valle, 33, was reported Feb. 23 at the Lynwood jail but was not made public by sheriff's officials. Los Angeles County coroner's officials said Valle, who was awaiting trial, died of asphyxiation after placing a bag over her head. Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Valle died at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood but denied the department had anything to hide, noting jail officials do not routinely release identities of those who commit suicide while in custody.

Hurricane Sandy is bearing down hard on the East Coast. Atlantic City, N.J., casinos have been evacuated. Jersey Shore is abandoned. Some Manhattan streets are starting to flood. The mega-storm has already smashed through construction sites, shut down stores and Wall Street and left even jaded residents slightly panicky. Vendors of essential items such as food, water, gas and batteries are prohibited from price-gouging during the tempest, warned New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Jackie Dancy has been to the Albertsons supermarket near her Baldwin Hills home many times, but she couldn't care less that the store is closing permanently. The retired accountant now does most of her grocery shopping at a nearby Target, which she likes for its convenience and low prices. "It's much cleaner and well stocked," Dancy said. "They always have what you need. " Supermarkets are a staple of most neighborhoods, but their community status and financial well-being are under intense assault from rivals of all sizes that have steadily siphoned off the grocers' customers.