California lawmakers are taking aim at a grocery industry practice that blocks retailers from moving into old, shuttered food stores.
Grocery store owners can sometimes attach covenants to their properties prohibiting a store from being used to sell food for years after it closes.
Trade groups maintain this provides retailers with certainty when investing in a particular market, ensuring rivals won’t swoop in if a grocer closes a location.
Campaigners against hunger and some antitrust scholars contend the practice helps to create food deserts, leaving stores empty when a grocer departs a community and blocking other grocers from entering the ...