This article is second in a 3-part series regarding the incident at Key Food two years ago, which recently came to light after the customer involved began circulating the video of his situation two years alter, in the days after his settlement was negotiated.

RELATED ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES

Possible Implicit Bias and Entitlement Leaves Arab-Owned Key Food Unprotected And Alone
Entitlement Drives Highlands Current To Chain Newsbox To Lamppost After Being Removed By Key Food
Letter To The Highlands Current Editor: Did Racial Bias Influence Key Food Article?

No one seems to listen to Key Food when they say “don’t come around here no more.” The Highlands Current newspaper box that was formerly beside the front door at Key Food was removed by the store’s owners after the Highlands Current used a photo that some found questionable to illustrate their article about a recent lawsuit settlement (read ALBB’s article on it here).

After being removed, the newspaper’s editor then contacted Beacon’s City Administrator Chris White to request permission to chain the newspaper box to a lamppost on the public sidewalk outside of Key Food. Beacon’s City Administrator granted that permission, according to Junior Dabashi from the family of Key Food who inquired with the City Administrator as to if the box needed a permit, and further requested to have the box be on another block. Beacon’s City Administrator declined Junior’s request, while acknowledging that the newspaper and the store had a disagreement, Junior told ALBB. Technically, the Highlands Current has the box listed as being on the sidewalk at 252 Main Street on their Where To Find The Current page. That address is for the laundromat, which has closed.

Because of the front page photo, some customers were calling and emailing the store, as well as speaking improperly to the children of the Key Food franchise family, according to co-owner JB Said and Junior. While most customers were coming to Key Food Beacon’s defense, the store was in a difficult position, and after speaking to the article’s reporter about it, felt like they were not being heard.

Key Food Beacon is owned by a Middle Eastern family from Yemen, and many women in their family wear the hijab, making them identifiable and possible targets to people who feel like being mean and Islamaphobic on any given day. The newspaper photo empowered them to unleash.

“I didn’t mind the article,” Mo Dabashi, a manager and family member of Key Food Beacon, told ALBB. He was there the day of the incident two years ago. “It didn’t say anything incorrect. It was the photo that didn’t represent the story right, and now people are calling the store.”

Co-owner JB told ALBB in an interview: "I understand a newspaper is going to report what it's going to report. That's why we wanted the box at our front door. To get the people the information they need. The customer posting then taking down the video everywhere, in the same week we settled with him, two years after the incident, and then the article with that photo - it didn't tell the whole story. This was a major ordeal for my family. For Emad.

“After the article came out, people started calling and emailing the store. Threatening my siblings and their families on the street. They have little kids. They live here. It is still happening. When Jeff [the reporter] came to talk about the article, we told him what was happening. He didn't hear us. His kept saying 'it had to be newsworthy.' By not trying to understand how we are feeling in this situation, with people saying things to us in the store - to my kids while they are here with me - made me not want to see that newspaper box ever again."

Beaconites Respond To Highlands Current Chaining Of The Box

Readers of A Little Beacon Blog who had been following the story were shocked to see that the paper had chained the box to the lamppost.

Key Food’s sidewalk is double-wide because they donated 10’ of their parking lot to help beautify Main Street. You can still see the old parking lot paint here in this photo. The City’s sidewalk in front of Key Food is 77.5” and is larger at Rite Aid, coming in at 120”.

Said a colleague in journalism: “OMG…I guess Key Food Beacon doesn’t own that part of the sidewalk, but it’s very strange!!”
Fact Check: Actually, Key Food Beacon does own some of that sidewalk! They donated 10 feet of their parking lot in 2012 in order to help beautify Main Street, giving it a pretense of a double-wide city sidewalk.

Said a local cowboy and customer who had previously been banned from the store years ago after slinging eye-brow raising comments to an employee, but has since been released from their time-out and shops in the store: “Jesus. Key Food is a lawless land.”

Said a friend who follows Beacon from afar: “The audacity.”

Said a 10 year old student: “Bro.”

Key Food Appeals to City Of Beacon To Move Box To Another Block; Is Denied Based On Width Of Sidewalk

According to Junior, when he appealed to Beacon’s City Administrator Chris White to have the box located elsewhere, the City Administrator responded by email: “The sidewalk in front is one of the widest areas of the Main Street sidewalks so I didn’t think their request was inappropriate.”

“Our intention is to go back to normal, but the way his [the reporter’s] response about the whole situation made us change our minds...We tried to explain to him, that with that picture, you put so many people in harm’s way. But he was not understanding.”

— Junior Debashi

The City’s sidewalk at Key Food is 77.5” wide, and is 120” wide down the block at Rite Aid. As reported by the Highlands Current years ago, Key Food Beacon donated 10 feet of their parking lot in 2012 in order to help beautify Main Street, giving it a pretense of a double-wide City sidewalk. According to the article, the project was connected to Beacon’s Chamber of Commerce as part of its “Market Square” restoration project, funded by the State of New York’s Office of Housing and Community Renewal.

Had Key Food not applied the generosity they are known for, the sidewalk would be much narrower.

Of The 25 Locations Of Highlands Current; 4 Newspaper Boxes; This Is The Only One Chained

The Highlands Current is available in 25 locations in Beacon.

Of the 3 other newspaper boxes that are on Main Street, the one at Key Food Beacon is the only one that is chained and faces the store. The one in front of Beacon Natural, the one near the bus stop at Beacon Bread, and the one snuggled next to Ron’s Guitar World are free standing, and face the street. No chains.

Why This Lampost?

“By not trying to understand how we are feeling in this situation, with people saying things to us in the store - to my kids while they are here with me - made me not want to see that newspaper box ever again.”

— JB Said, Co-Owner Key Food Beacon

Key Foods Beacon is a grocery store. To people who don’t pay it much mind, the store becomes a generic thing on the street, like a box of Kleenex, with no local brand identity. To some, it is public property that is an essential store that provides food and nourishment.

But Key Food Beacon is a franchise owned by a family with deep roots in small business. To exert entitlement that a newspaper box deserves to be at a grocery store is a dehumanization of the people who nurture the store, the employees inside, and the good customers who don’t lose their minds over not being and to combine differently priced salads into one container.