JZ71 says:

Definitely not PC, but the fundamental statement is correct – “businesses exist to make money for the owners”. They don’t exist because people say they want them, they exist because people support them financially – money talks! People may say they hate Walmart, yet Walmart remains busy and profitable. With other nearby, lower-cost competitors, in a lower-income area, it’s more difficult for a full-price, full-service operation like Schnuck’s to compete, successfully. And, no, I’m not going to blame “the added security costs and the thievery”, either – Aldi’s and Family Dollar face the same challenges – Schnuck’s simply was not able to make a profit at this location, so it closed. They don’t hate the neighborhood nor are they in the business of dissing poor folks, they just have higher costs than their competitors (allegedly better, fresher, more-expensive products and workers paid union wages), and their (former?) customers (“these people”) simply did not support their business model, financially. And it works both ways, “those people” in Ladue and Wildwood are more likely to support Straub’s, Whole Food’s, Trader Joe’s and Dierberg’s, while avoiding Aldi’s, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree and Dollar General. We all fall into demographic classifications, we’re not all interchangeable, financially, when it comes to defining retail buying patterns.