Pepper prices, local journalism and answering questions

It started with a dicsussion with my friend over a text message about the price of groceries. It spiralled into a story here at Vancity Lookout that we need your help to write. But first, let me explain. 

My friend casually told me how expensive peppers were at a grocery store in Coal Harbour, where he paid around $6 for one single pepper. I countered with a picture of a package of peppers at a local independent grocer on Commercial for only $4.99.

Maybe he was slightly exaggerating. Maybe he wasn’t. Regardless, grocery prices have skyrocketed. What it spoke to was the frustration, pain and anger over how expensive living in Vancouver has become.

He was surprised at the price from the independent grocery store. As he explained to me, it’s all well and good that small grocers exist. But living in Coal Harbour, there is no access to these stores. I checked, and he was right — the only options nearby are Freshco, owned by Sobeys and Urban Fare, owned by the Pattison Group. It’s not a food desert; it’s an independent grocery desert! 

It’s a small conversation with friends. But I know it’s an issue on the minds of everyone in Vancouver, and across the country. Just what the heck happened to my local grocery store prices?

Good journalism starts with a question like that. It burrows itself in your head, refusing to leave. You think of specific memories, like when I used to buy Chinese broccoli at a small Chinatown grocer, wondering why it was less expensive and why we can’t have more stores like them everywhere. It’s an itch that any good journalist eventually has to scratch…

Local journalism is about what that question means to Vancouver residents and doing the hard work to answer it.

When we started Vancity Lookout a little less than two years ago, the question I asked was, why doesn’t Vancouver have a publication focused exclusively on the city, answering these local questions? Sure, bigger outlets write about Vancouver. But they aren’t dedicating 100 per cent of their time, resources and energy to it. 

Many of you have been with us on this journey for a while now, reading our newsletter three times a week. I can’t thank you enough for that. We started with a newsletter summarizing the biggest stories in the city, in a way that actually was easily and enjoyable to read.

But in the past few months, you may have noticed some changes. Bigger, exclusive stories. Deeper profiles. Interviews and quotes from sources. Asking and answering local questions.

The changes are small, maybe you’ve barely recognized them. But changes are happening. We can do it all without changing the weekly newsletter you all love, because of over 400 readers who stepped up to become paying members. With those resources, we’re investing more in long-form, hyper-local stories about Vancouver from journalists hungry to answer the city’s biggest questions.

Questions like with rising rents, how can artists and the popular Eastside Culture Crawl survive in Vancouver? Or what’s the future of False Creek co-op housing as leases begin to expire? And are public consultations on things like new housing development fundamentally broken? 

As we answer more of these questions, I believe the Lookout has to do it differently than traditional news publications. That old model of annoying ads, viral social headlines and chasing page views killed journalism. It’s why so many places have laid off local journalists. I also believe it’s contributed to why so few people trust the media…

We won’t do that. We don’t hide behind a faceless brand. We don’t have a hidden agenda. We want and welcome readers to help shape the stories we cover. We don’t sit in an office crunching numbers; we write stories, edit and work in journalism directly. We only write about Vancouver. And it’s why these types of updates are useful, so you can understand who we are and how we’re approaching local journalism.

A perfect example is the poll I shared yesterday in our newsletter. Over 800 of you said we should write about independent grocers in Vancouver, how they’re competing against the bigger chains and what that means for the city.

I’ve already got Dustin, one of our freelance team members, working on the story. He told me he’s already had productive discussions with some independent grocery store owners. But with so much positive reader feedback, we’re already working on additional stories to pursue…

This came from a question about the price of a pepper, and readers overwhelmingly telling us to look into this issue.

I’ll have more to share about these stories our team is working on. But I’ve got a favour to ask.

I’ve created a quick survey on our independent grocer story. It’s a couple of questions, and your answers may end up in the story itself. We’ve got a few other ideas about stories to pursue, but I want to hear from you to help shape what we cover.