If your supermarket stops are making you anxious, you’re not alone. An Axiso survey found that about 60% of U.S. shoppers say they feel angry, anxious and frustrated when they buy groceries. The Axios survey sites the reason as inflation, but there’s another factor in major cities like Oakland — rampant shoplifting.
At its peak last year, shoplifters would hit the same stores more than a dozen times a day, wheeling whole cart loads of products past guards who were told to stand down. Since the grocery chains started locking up the more coveted items, like alcohol and laundry detergent, the number of incidents has decreased. Shoppers witnessing this kind of brazen, broad-daylight theft is still common, though.“It happens at least twice a day,” an Oakland hills clerk told me recently.
Meanwhile, the Montclair Village Association (montclairvillage.com) keeps raising money to put toward safety ambassadors and security cameras. An open letter to city officials speaks volumes about the frustration felt here in the hills.
Around town: Speaking of fundraising, the Montclair Village Association will hold one of its biggest events of the year next weekend.
The 10th annual Montclair Beer, Wine & Music Festival will be on June 15, and at least one business — Daughter Thai Kitchen — is donating 20% of its street food sales that day to priority projects in the village, like safety improvement. The major sponsor for the festival is Ken Betts Co., and recently Marissa Betts expressed her frustration over repeated robbery attempts at the company’s Redwood Road station, warning customers on social media not to leave valuables in the car while pumping gas.
Church bulletin: Members of St. John’s Episcopal Church (1707 Gouldin Road) are celebrating their 50th anniversary — and a plan to reroute the increasingly unsafe access into their parking lot.
This past Sunday’s groundbreaking for the St. John’s Gateway Project kicked off construction of a bridge across Temescal Creek so that drivers can enter and exit St. John’s from Thornhill Drive. It should be completed by mid-2025.
Bank news: Chase Bank is opening in the large, stand-alone building at 2110 Mountain Blvd, where First Republic operated for several years in Montclair.
JPMorgan acquired First Republic after a run on accounts caused the bank to collapse in early 2023. Chase Bank staff at their longtime current location say they haven’t been told whether the company plans to close its location at 2051 Mountain Blvd.
Café closure: A go-to breakfast spot has closed after 22 years of operating in Oakland. Lakeshore Café struggled during the pandemic, at one point using GoFundMe to raise money to help staff survive during the shutdown.
Book it: Local writer Susan Kiyo Ito will read from her book at 6:30 p.m. June 18 at the Montclair Library.
Her new memoir, “I Would Meet You Anywhere,” is about growing up with adoptive Japanese American parents, knowing that her birth father was White. The book was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award. A book signing courtesy of Montclair Village bookstore A Great Good Place for Books will follow the discussion.
Coffee cult: The specialty coffee roaster that started in Oakland — Blue Bottle Coffee — was the star at a Tourism Ireland event recently. Bryan Meehan, who took roaster James Freeman’s single bean blend and made it a household name, announced a partnership with Blue Bottle Coffee and his five-star Park Hotel Kenmare in County Kerry, Ireland.
Blue Bottle Coffee grew “organically” from its start in Oakland’s Temescal district to retail shops in several countries. Meehan says if you think Blue Bottle is popular in Oakland (with its three locations, including on Piedmont Avenue) you should travel to Asia.
“It’s beyond popular in Japan and Korea,” he says. “Just the logo recognition … 50% of the people in Korea would know it.”
Ginny Prior can be followed on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and at ginnyprior.com. Email her at ginnyprior@hotmail.com.
