Bodega Boom: Influx of Latino Grocery Store Owners Creates Glut –

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ReadingEagleBusinessWeekly.com: Jose Abreu has owned several bodegas in Reading since moving here in 1990.

In the early 1990s, there were 20,940 fewer Latino residents in the city and few bodegas catering to them.

But as the years went on, more and more of the corner grocery stores opened, until they finally started filling in the street blocks, providing fierce competition for Abreu.

The small stores stock products from home for many Latinos and can save neighbors a trip to the grocery store if they run out of milk or eggs.

But owners say that business is often slow, at best.

They blame the economy, an unfriendly attitude toward businesses from City Hall, robberies and, especially, an overabundance of bodegas.

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