Cruickshank blames the supermarkets: "Say a grocery opens up somewhere that's going to damage the surrounding corner shops.
"I can see in one or two months going back, living in the house, as long as some groceries open up.
Then, a dorky guy carrying a bag of groceries opens the door of his apartment and is stunned at the sight before him: a group of seven bikini-clad female models forming the shape of a couch.
Several H.E.B. grocery stores opened on generator power the day after the storm passed.
Last month, Ralphs grocery store opened a branch at Ninth and Flower, the first new full-service supermarket in the area in more than fifty years.
The Garden of Eden, a high-end grocery store, opened two and a half years ago to acclaim from both groups.
A bank and grocery store opened in consecutive weeks in late January and early February, and a health maintenance organization has just signed up to move in.
At the Grocery, which opened in a former furniture factory on Cannon Street two years ago, you can see all the requisite Southern revival staples: jars of homemade pickles, fried oysters with deviled-egg dressing, a meaty charred broccoli with pimento cheese sauce.
Further northwest in Overton, a grocery store opened last November with a community effort that raised thousands of dollars in support, while that same month in Arthur, Neb., high school students used a state government grant to start the town's first grocery store in three years.
