Who is Anthony Estrada, and is he suited to fix KC’s Linwood grocery? | Opinion
It’s fair to say that being a grocer runs in Anthony Estrada’s blood. Three generations of his family have, in some capacity, worked in the business.
And, he says, that after 36 years in the grocery business, he believes that operating the once-troubled and now closed former Sun Fresh grocery store in Kansas City’s Linwood Square Shopping Center has been his career destiny all along.
If that’s true — and after meeting the man, I think it very well might be — then I’m all in favor of the community helping him see it through.
Estrada is right when he says he can’t do it alone. It’s going to take a community effort — residents, civic leaders, police, and politicians joining him — to help this grocery store succeed.
Community leaders tell me that where this grocery store is concerned, those entities have not always worked in tandem. Well, now is the time.
Like many in Kansas City, I’ve followed the tribulations of the former Sun Fresh at 31st Street and Prospect Avenue for years and even more closely last year when reports surfaced about violent crime, theft, poorly stocked shelves inside and public sex and drugs outside, which made it unappealing to the residents it was intended to serve. Employees reported feeling unsafe working in the store. In short, the place was a mess, despite the millions of dollars the city poured into the store.
So when I learned a new grocery store would open in the space, I was eager to meet the person who stepped up to operate it.
Estrada said he made his decision after a lot of prayer and reflection, and some prodding from community members with whom he has worked for years, supplying groceries at their local church food giveaways.
After an hourlong interview with Estrada, a grocery store consultant who also works part-time as a Roeland Park police officer, I left convinced he’s the man for the job. I’m not the only one to conclude this.
“I support Anthony Estrada as the operator of this grocery store,” said Gwen Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City.
“Our Urban Summit Prospect Corridor Public Safety Task Force working committee participated in a thorough vetting process along with city officials and neighborhood leaders. Mr. Estrada presented the strongest, most credible plan.”
Safety, security, cleanliness priorities
He said he will put safety first, with security inside and out. And cleanliness. But what stood out to Grant is that “in addition to his business proposal, was his commitment to community partnership.”
Karen Slaughter, president of the Key Coalition Neighborhood Association, which includes the Linwood Square Shopping Center, said she promised herself that her message to the next person to operate the grocery store would be: “There are going to be people who come into this store who will not treat you with dignity, but you need to treat them with dignity.”
“Mr. Estrada understands that,” Slaughter said. “That is his basic philosophy. I was very much impressed, not only by his experience but also by the way he was approaching the situation. And that he was willing to take input from the community.”
Estrada has a plan to make the new store — which will change its name to United Market, because, he said, “I wanted a name that says the community is coming together” — a membership-only store. As an experiment, shoppers would show a membership card to enter. He wants shoppers to have a sense of ownership. He believes that kind of setup will keep ne’er-do-wells out.
In what is a low-income area, Estrada doesn’t want members to pay or pay much for a membership. “That’s money they could be using to buy food,” he said. But he’s going to follow the community’s lead on membership cost.
I talked with Sarah Saber, an operations and logistics manager with World Fresh Market and El Mercado Fresco, who said she has worked closely with Estrada for the last five years. Estrada had been working as a district manager for Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG), assisting store managers across the Kansas City metro.
“Anthony is that coach in the corner whenever you need him,” she said. “He is the most positive person I’ve come across in the retail grocery business.”
When Saber first learned Estrada left a job he loved with AWG to operate the Linwood store, “I was like that’s awesome,” Saber said. “I know Anthony is the person who is going to worry about the well-being of the community. I have faith in him.”
The Linwood store has been an Associate Wholesale Grocers customer since the store first opened. For about three years, when the store was new, it was in Estrada’s work territory. He visited the grocery store often. So he knows the place.
Visitation, Rockhurst High alum
Wednesday morning, I watched 51-year-old Estrada, a black canvas backpack slung over one shoulder and a look of intention on his face, hustle across Grand Boulevard at Crown Center to the Panera Bread, where the two of us had scheduled to meet.
He greeted me with a hardy handshake, a broad smile, and an introduction. “I’m Anthony.” He made a strong first impression.
Estrada is of Mexican descent, but was born in Kansas City at Menorah Medical Center. His parents, graduates of the University of Guadalajara, immigrated to Kansas City from Mexico, where his older three siblings were born.
Raised in a Catholic family in the Westport area of Kansas City, Estrada attended Visitation School and went to Rockhurst High School on a work grant. “That meant I had to clean classrooms after school to help pay my tuition,” Estrada said.
“My grandparents came over from Mexico in the early 1900s.” They fled Mexico, he said, to escape religious persecution. They settled in the Armourdale neighborhood, a historically Hispanic community in Kansas City, Kansas, where Estrada’s grandfather ran a corner grocery.
During the Depression years, his grandfather became known for doing business on a buy-now-pay-later trust system, and his customers, also his neighbors, always paid up.
When Estrada’s dad was a boy, he worked in the grocery store with his father. Estrada said that three times, developers forced his grandfather to move from his location, for progress. He moved and just opened another store in the area. First Joe’s Market, and then Sante Fé Corner Grocery.
Many years later, Estrada’s brother worked at one of the old Milgram grocery stores. For you Kansas City newbies, Milgram Food Stores, founded in 1913 in Kansas City, Kansas became a prominent family-run grocery chain.
When Estrada was 16, he got a job pushing carts at the Meiners Sun Fresh in Brookside. He’s been in the grocery business ever since, becoming a customer service manager at a Hen House market in Prairie Village when he was 19. Eventually, he became a store director responsible for all aspects of store operations. He said he was often sent from store to store to troubleshoot.
“I was a good problem solver,” Estrada said. He talked about having a knack for walking into a grocery store, looking around, and knowing fairly quickly where the problems were and how to fix them. He managed multiple stores all at once across the metro area in Kansas and Missouri. “Every store had different needs.”
Throughout his career, Estrada has worked nearly every job in a grocery store, from pushing carts to stocking shelves and working the checkout line. He has worked behind the seafood counter, in the produce section, in customer service, and in the manager’s office.
Helped open more than 15 grocery stores
In the last seven years, Estrada, who isn’t married but takes care of his 83-year-old mother at his Lee’s Summit home, helped grocers open more than 15 stores.
His plan for the Linwood store focuses on safety, security and cleanliness. “It has to be a clean and organized store at all times. The cleaner the better,” he said. “People are less likely to make a mess when the place is really clean.”
He wants to hire people familiar with the people who shop in the store and stock the shelves with products the residents want. He plans to keep meeting with community members, city officials and police so everyone stays engaged, focused on making sure this store thrives.
“Let me be very clear: no operator, no matter how strong, can succeed if the City of Kansas City fails to meet its financial and public safety obligations,” Grant said.
“If chronic public safety challenges continue to go unaddressed, the grocery store will fail, not because of the operator, but because of systemic neglect.”
Yes, Estrada said, he’s nervous, but he’s also excited about a chance for success here. “It has to work,” he said. “I feel like everything I’ve done in my career has been leading me and preparing me to operate this grocery store.”
This will be the first grocery store Estrada has taken full operation of, and he’s the third to operate the store. I’d say he’s well-suited for the job. He knows how to sell food, and he comes with experience in public safety, considering he was named Roeland Park’s officer of the year in 2013. Let’s hope the third time is the charm.
