Let Them Eat Snack Cakes

Once upon a time, there was a Star Market on Broadway in Somerville. This store was the only place between Porter Square and Sullivan Station (a good 50 minute walk from one another, with no direct bus line) that supplied the neighborhoods in between with relatively quality foods. However for some reason, the store closed down in 2008. Since then, despite the city's attempts to replace it with another legitimate grocery store, it remains a vacant eyesore, the fossils of the "Star Market" lettering etched into a rotting concrete edifice and the parking lot reduced to a place to dump snow in the winter. Apparently, the other major grocery chains "don't think the demographic will support [their business]" (See: http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/x1606967457/Supermarkets-refuse-to-take-over-Somerville-Star-Market-site?zc_p=0#axzz21CsyVqhl ).
I wish they had been a bit more specific about what they mean by "demographic." Everyone needs food, right?
Yesterday I decided to walk a ways from the bus station at Sullivan and see if there wasn't a grocery store around there. I GPSed a Stop & Shop that was 0.7 miles from it, and began walking in that direction. However after about two blocks I realized that this store was only accessible if I walked onto the ramp leading to I93. I was not about to enter a highway on foot (I don't even know if that's legal) so I turned around and tried to see if one of the smaller grocery stores it had listed on Broadway were any good.
All of them turned out to be 711s, Tedeschi's, or the non-chain equivalent. At the top of my shopping list was "strawberries," but the only produce I saw available were brown bananas and something that looked like it was supposed to be a mango but was the color of kiwi skin. Even bread was hard to come by. Items such as cookies and glazed, greasy pastries took up most of the aisle. Though I have to say part of this was personal, ever since living in Germany I have become somewhat of a bread snob (i.e. if it can squish like a pillow, I am not interested. What do Americans put in there to make it do that?)
Finally, this past weekend I googled the closest Stop & Shop to my neighborhood, and found that it's about 18 minutes away by foot. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the area of Somerville I live in is called  "Winter Hill." Because it's a hill. A steep. Long. Hill. I'm talking San Fran status. And the Stop & Shop is downhill from my house. So I'm going to have to carry my groceries uphill every time I go shopping. Now, being an (almost) fit, young, twenty-something, to me this is just annoying. But for older people, disabled people, or injured people this would pretty much be impossible. "Tastykake or death?"
So, the conclusions I have drawn from this experience is that non-shit-containing-food is a luxury in this country. If you can't afford a car, you obviously don't deserve produce. If you have a health problem and can't walk uphill for 18 minutes, just eat junk. That'll help it. Even Davis Square doesn't have a supermarket, despite having a ton of restaurants. Hm. I guess it's clear what "demographic" they're catering to.
All in all, there is a reason why Americans suffer from obesity. But they're not necessarily the gluttonous ones.