Yes, it’s true. People in neighborhoods, typically thought to be impoverished and dangerous, have money to spend. It took a report report by Washington-based non-profit, Social Compact, for the big chains to realize this, as the LA Times writes.

The piece reports that residents—like Sydney Bradford— of those inner-city neighborhoods, which big chains typically avoided, have and want to spend their cash closer to home, citing how many of the residents of neighborhoods like Watts, Boyle Heights, the  Hyde Park, West Adams, Crenshaw/Baldwin Village, Vernon Central, Central City East, Jefferson Park and Leimert Park areas of Los Angeles, have to go half a mile or more to get good groceries and basics sundries.

Social Compact’s number-crunching revealed a higher income threshold than that of the U.S. Census. One simple reason for this: they were able to pin down under the table income that is generally not reported to government institutions.

Their findings in the report titled, “LA Drilldown”: Because of the density in these more urban areas, the annual income earned per arce is higher than the rest of Los Angeles. Says the Times: “$350,000 a year per acre on average, compared with $91,000 per acre citywide.”

“Social Compact figures the neighborhoods’ average household income is $46,000 — $9,000 more than the census estimate in 2000. All told, the neighborhoods have 438,000 residents by Social Compact’s calculations, compared with 356,000 according to the census count.”

The report is making the big retailers consider these areas, and at least one chain is getting in on the action early. According to the Times, Fresh and Easy, a Trader’s Joe’s-like fresh, cheap grocery chain, already has a store in Compton and is breaking ground in South L.A. Hopefully, Ms. Sydney Bradford can walk to a Target or Walmart in the near future, rather than taking three (!!) busses.