Writers Hanooh, Howell, and Shryock, report that "there are 1,155 independently owned and operated liquor and convenience stores in Southeastern Michigan." What they do not directly address is that almost all of these liquor stores are immediately located in impoverished urban communities.
What's more, is that the people who live in these poor neighborhoods don't own these stores themselves. Why would anyone choose to place their business where there are little patron resources?
When poorer communities are displaced due to gentrification, the liquor stores relocate too. Some early Indigenous tribes followed the Buffalo as a means of survival. Are these liquor outlets following the Metaphorical Buffalo (Black and Brown communities) as a way to survive paying higher taxes elsewhere?
