The Nation: Mobile Market

For the elderly, going to the supermarket not only is discouraging, what with soaring prices, but can be dangerous because of rising crime. Denver is experimenting with a promising technique to ease both problems. Financed by a regional-council grant of $45,115, a nonprofit organization called Senior Services Inc. has remodeled a 45-passenger bus as a mobile grocery store and stocked it with items priced just above wholesale levels. The bus makes ten stops a week in low-income neighborhoods and housing projects, and the police department sends along an escort for security. So promising is the innovation that there is already talk of outfitting a whole fleet of buses to bring the bacon home to Denver’s elderly customers.