Reservation Bashas’ spared

Thanks to the economic slowdown, Bashas’ Supermarkets, headquartered in Chandler, recently announced it would be closing five of its stores statewide. Left untouched, though, are the set of five stores located on Arizona’s American Indian reservations, which are part of the Bashas’ “Dine Market” subset.

That a corporate chain grocery happens to serve historically isolated and neglected communities happens to be one of the state’s more interesting economic stories. It is also, in my view, another reason to believe in local ownership of iconic state institutions instead of the absentee model which has served Arizona quite poorly in recent years (Chase Bank, Pulte, Gannett, et. al.).

An argument might be made that injecting a Western grocery, with all of its crappy processed food, is another means of destruction of a traditional way of life (and diet) on the reservation. But the counter-argument holds that consumer choice should play a role there just as it does everywhere else. Whichever stance you take, the relationship between Bashas’ and the tribe – especially the Navajo – has been largely a content one for the last thirty years.

The Dine Markets got started in 1980 after the tribal council of the Navajo Nation wrote CEO Eddie Basha Jr., asking him to consider opening a store in Chinle. Basha, who would later mount a campaign for governor in 1992, was a descendant of a Lebanese shopkeeper who had migrated to an Arizona mining camp in 1910. Basha was immediately intrigued with the possibility, checked on distribution requirements, and then called the tribal council that same day.

“Hi, my name is Eddie Basha,” he said, according to the trade magazine Arizona Food Industry Journal. “I’m from Bashas’ Markets and I’d like to be your grocer.”

Today there are Dine Markets in Chinle, Window Rock, Tuba City, Kayenta, Pinion, Crownpoint, N.M., and Dilkon. More than 95 percent of the employees are said to speak Navajo.

Customer tastes and preferences vary slightly from other Arizona grocery stores, reports the trade journal. The markets sell a disproportionate amount of mutton, as well as Folgers coffee and Spam. Large bags of Blue Bird flour – long a staple in Navajo households – also do well. Even though the Dine cluster is far away from the company’s nucleus in the Valley, the stores are apparently doing well enough to avoid being shuttered.

Bashas’ spokeswoman Kristy Nied declined to discuss finances or even indicate whether the stores were a net moneymaker. The company is privately held, so there are no SEC filings to inspect. For now, though, the Dine Markets are staying.