Corner Store Chronicles

Amid a Pandemic and Racial Reckoning, Atlanta’s Corner Stores Are Community Cornerstones

When Carver Neighborhood Market was vandalized earlier this year, patrons rallied to support the grocer that offers fresh produce in one of Atlanta’s food deserts

Jewel Wicker
LEVEL
Published in
6 min readSep 16, 2020

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Illustration: Derrick Dent

Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.

When 2020 is said and done, it’ll likely become known as the year of massive uncertainty. But with so much instability (from Covid-19 to crimson skies on the West Coast), corner store culture remains familiar. LEVEL’s “Corner Store Chronicles” series pays homage to the power of the store that delivers the warmth and care that ACME will never replicate. Whether known as bodegas, tienditas, or another term of endearment where you’re from, our hoods would be nothing without them.

Days after protests broke out in June over the death of Rayshard Brooks, South Atlanta’s Carver Neighborhood Market became one of several sites of collateral damage. The shop — located half a mile from where Brooks was killed by police outside of a Wendys — had its windows smashed and walls tagged with graffiti deriding the shop for…

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