Making the Business Case for Prevention: Healthy Corner Stores

Our business has really grown the last 5 or 10 years.

We've made some new
improvements to the

front of the store and selling produce and things.

There's a lot of people
who do not like to

spend much money
in this kind of neighborhood.

And in the produce section, I thought it's not going

to do any good in this neighborhood.

And, it's unbelievable business in the produce section.

It's been very successful. We sell twice as much produce

a week than we ever have.

Louisville isn't the healthiest place to live.

We have a lot of issues here with chronic disease,

particularly obesity.

And in most of those
neighborhoods you end up with

what people consider
a food desert.

The scope of the impact that's being made in the community

right now is
beyond my wildest dreams.

The fun part is seeing people
at the cash register

actually checking out with
fresh fruits and vegetables.

They can walk into my store and buy their greens,

bananas, apples, oranges,

and I think I help the community to get access to it.

We have a lot of new customers coming in, for the first time,

seeing what we have to offer. That's been the greatest.

I tell any business owner it is something that

with the national trend,

with the fact that there's so much talk about obesity,

it is something that they should try, and I think

they'll realize that it will pay off financially.

We can't be a great city if we're not a healthy city.

I believe you've got to live in a city where

everybody's got a chance

to win and realize their potential, and their health,

obviously, is a
vital part in that.

Now you come in our front door,

and the produce is exposed more. It's more friendly.

The work that they've done on the outside of the building,

in brightening the building up,

it looks a lot more inviting. So that sent a good message,

I think, to the neighbors and to our kids.

Just the growth of this store over the last year,

the growth of the community over the last year

has been tremendous.

And the support that the community has given us with

this store has also been tremendous.

There is profit to be made in this.

Thousands of servings of fresh fruits and vegetables

leave these small locally owned stores.

I took the chance and I get success with it.

The store's doing well.

We've been able to hire young people and senior citizens

to work from the community in these stores.

Everybody wins. It's good for the economy.

It's great for the neighborhoods.

It builds community,

and of course
it's great for health.

This is a movement that will improve productivity

as a community not only from a quality-of-life standpoint,

but from an
economic-development,

workforce-development
standpoint as well.

And if they do it in the long run, it will be very profitable.

It's a win-win situation.