A government-funded grocery store run by a nonprofit in Kansas City is suing the city, alleging that rampant crime in the surrounding area was neglected by officials and forced the store to close.
On March 3, the nonprofit Community Builders of Kansas City (CBKC) and its subsidiary, Midtown Grocers LLC, filed a lengthy civil complaint against Kansas City, which has been compared to the Mad Max movies which offer a terrifying vision of society collapsing into anarchic tribal violence amid resource wars and ecocide.
The filing, viewed by the Daily Mail, explained that CBKC had reached an agreement with the city to address a food desert in a historically redlined neighborhood. The nonprofit would run a grocery store in a city-owned building, which had cost $18 million of public funds to revitalize.
Part of the agreement stated that Kansas City would run the property ‘in a first-class’ manner, which the lawsuit alleges it did not do. The filing also claimed that Kansas City broke its own laws regarding chronic nuisance conditions.
The lawsuit cited a ‘dramatic increase in criminal activity and related safety concerns at the shopping center,’ shortly after the nonprofit’s grocery store, called Sun Fresh Market, opened in 2022 and was forced to close in August 2025.
The filing said that crime in the area continued to worsen in the following years but was ignored by city officials despite CBKC informing them of the problem.
‘The city was keenly aware of the rampant, abhorrent criminal activity that was taking place in and around the shopping center on a regular basis, including during business hours,’ the lawsuit alleged.
Some of the criminal activity listed in the civil complaint included possession of weapons, fighting, drug use and drug dealing, prostitution, assaults and shoplifting.
The Sun Fresh Market opened in Kansas City in 2022 and was plagued with problems
Before the Sun Fresh Market closed, images from the interior of the store showed mostly bare shelves
The store closed in August 2025. In the weeks before the closure customers complained of bad smells in the store, empty shelves and expired food
The lawsuit highlighted one occasion of oral sex in the open at a bus stop next to the grocery store, and another time a naked woman ran through the grocery store knocking items off shelves and throwing products around.
A Kansas City spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘The city will vigorously defend its interests in response to these claims.’
The spokesperson also said that the city is searching for a new operator to manage the grocery store in the same location.
The Daily Mail has also reached out to CBKC for comment regarding the nonprofit’s lawsuit.
The month before the Sun Fresh Market closed, images from the interior of the store showed mostly bare shelves and coolers as well as empty meat, produce and deli departments.
Shoppers complained of foul odors in the store and said no longer held the fresh items they needed. Customers claimed that shelves had been mostly empty for three months, and some of the few available products appeared to be expired.
‘The milk, I am scared to buy some,’ shopper Michaelle Randolph told KMBC in July. ‘Even the dates, they may have a few days over. I don’t want to buy that.’
Shopper Jon Murphy added: ‘It’s a rancid odor. I think something is dead or something’s gone bad.’
Kansas City has been compared to Mad Max due to crime in the city and chaos such as street-racing gangs that terrorize locals
Kansas City has been compared to the Mad Max movies (pictured) which offer a terrifying vision of society collapsing into anarchic tribal violence amid resource wars and ecocide
Residents at the time also said that criminals around the store had little to fear, as Kansas City has not had its own jail since 2009, and can only access a few dozen detention beds in nearby county lockups.
Indeed, that complaint was reflected in CBKC’s lawsuit, which also alleged that the city neglected crime near the Sun Fresh Market because there was no city jail to place offenders.
According to local media, the store received $28,997,400 in taxpayer money through bonds, loans, ordinances and subsidies.
But there was little to show for it, with the store a very poor cousin of privately-run supermarkets nearby whose clean aisles were stuffed with fresh food.
The City of Kansas owns the shopping center where the grocery store is located, after it spent $17 million to buy it and fix it up.
According to The Washington Post, the supermarket lost $885,000 in 2024 and customer numbers plunged to around 4,000 shoppers a week – down from 14,000 a few years ago.
