Dear New Seasons,

We at Roosevelt High School believe we can help New Seasons raise their revenues and
attract new business while also helping the community and acknowledging the underserved and
minoritized groups in the St. Johns area. We are worried that St. Johns may change greatly due to
the drawing factor of your establishment. While the presence of New Seasons has and will
continue to be a positive impact on our communitys economy, the racial and economic diversity
that is central to the St. Johns community may fade. As you may know, gentrification has been a
widely discussed topic in this community, and lately, your store has been the center of that
discussion. Due to this controversy, many minorities and low-income families revert to shopping
at our local Fred Meyer instead. In order to combat this, we have a proposal.
Lets talk about how we can bring more business and families to your establishment.
Now that New Seasons has entered St. Johns, Fred Meyer has made some changes itself, some of
which actually seem to mimic the practices of New Seasons, such as putting their more premium
products to the front and expanding their produce section. The fact of the matter is, families are
going to Fred Meyer because they see it as a cheaper but equivalent experience to New Seasons;
the problem with this is that many people from the local community havent even walked
through the doors of a New Seasons before reaching that conclusion. Furthermore, locals have
expressed that they feel as if they dont belong or arent welcome. Some of these people have felt
as if theyve been racially profiled and excluded from the exclusive club that regular shoppers
seem to be a part of. What needs to happen to remedy this is getting more of these people to truly
experience New Seasons, but we have to give them a reason to.
Our proposal is putting in place a discount of 10-15% for Roosevelt families, which they
could receive by presenting a valid Roosevelt High School student I.D. at checkout. Roosevelt
High School is a Title 1 school meaning that it has high percentages of children from low-income
families, and a discount could bring students in not only for lunch time but after school, and on
the weekends.