The Journal Star is reporting that Adams Supermarket isn’t doing so well. Sales are slow, and expenses are high. So store owner Ahmad Abud (aka Hussein Alsalahi) is wanting to lower his costs.
A big cost is the city’s requirement that he hire an off-duty city police officer at $30 an hour to act as a security guard from 2:30 p.m. to midnight, when the store closes. He wants to change that to 8 p.m. to midnight.
The big story in the media is that he wants to lower the requirements. But to me the bigger question is: Why is the south side not supporting this store?
Here’s one possibility. Billy Dennis visited the store and reports that the place stinks like rotten meat and has no fresh vegetables. If that’s the case (and I don’t know if it’s a chronic problem, or if it was a fluke the time Billy visited), then Abud is never going to get loyal customers, and he’ll be back regularly asking for relief from other regulations to which he enthusiastically agreed just a few months back.
Perhaps another health inspection is in order.
On my way to work the other day, I noticed a car with a bumper sticker on the back that read, “No more Vietnams, End the war.” Isn’t that self-contradictory? Wouldn’t the only way to have “no more Vietnams” be to win the war, rather than simply end it?
Incidentally, in that same vein, I watched the final episode of PBS’s new documentary “The War” last night. I have to say that I firmly believe that if World War II were to happen today, we would lose. Not because we don’t have military might, but because we wouldn’t be willing to do what it takes to win. People would be driving around with bumper stickers saying “No more Bataans, End the war.” General MacArthur would never have returned to the Philippines, as he would have been forced to resign after lengthy congressional hearings. And, of course, the U.S. would have been bogged down in a Japanese quagmire with thousands of American troops dying every day trying to take the island nation because they wouldn’t be willing to use the bomb.
News and Comment about Peoria, Illinois
