Brief and Photos by Marva Sneed
The opening of the Food Basket grocery store ends a two-year dry spell for the East Oak Cliff area near Paul Quinn College.
“I’ve opened hundreds, if not more than that, supermarkets. The company operates five Cash Saver supermarkets, three of those in other inner-city Dallas neighborhoods,” said Food Basket general manager Bill Davidson during the grand opening ceremony.
The Food Basket store fills a grocery store gap created by the January 2021 closure of the Save U More store at the same location. The City Council supported incentives in 2014 and 2016 to assist with the development and construction of the initial grocery store and in September 2022, the City Council approved the sale of the store to the new operator.
“They promised to pay Dallas $2.8 million if they don’t stay here for five years and nine months. They plan to stay. It’s up to you to shop here,” said Tennell Atkins, Council Member, District 8.
The store is located at 3540 Simpson Stuart Road, in southern Dallas County. This is a modest neighborhood of older apartments where some tenants without cars need a place to walk for food. There is a new apartment complex under construction on Simpson Stuart Road just west of the new grocery store that could provide new potential customers.
