Looting forces Germantown stores to close, leaving residents with limited access to food

GERMANTOWN - Multiple days of looting in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood has forced essential businesses to close.

The part of the city residents have referred to as a “food desert” has been left without access to some of their already few food and drug stores Tuesday morning.

The Fresh Grocer on the 5300 block of Chew Avenue was among the stores that closed its doors, citing concerns for the safety of their employees.

“We can’t open our Fresh Grocer Supermarket. People are coming up crying because they can’t get food anywhere,” Fresh Grocer CEO Pat Burns told FOX 29’s Lauren Johnson. “This was the number one food desert in Philadelphia for years.”

Officials say the Rite Aid in the same shopping plaza was looted for the second night in a row overnight.

Burns called for more help from the governor’s office, state police and National Guard in response.

“We need the state with National Guard, state police here all the time. We can only do so much. We need help or there’s going to be no supermarkets in Philly. I had to close all of our stores,” Burns added.

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