Business Going Green:
The neighborhood grocery: Looking to the past for a greener future

Fifty years ago, every neighborhood was dotted with small "mom and pop" grocery stores that provided friendly, personalized service. Expanding expressways, plentiful gasoline, the ever-burgeoning presence of automobiles, suburban flight and other factors turned consumers toward large, centralized stores. So neighborhood grocery stores have gone the way of local tailors. More than 100,000 small retailers have closed in the past 20 years and been replaced by big box stores.

A D&D Main Street Market customer chooses from a large sample of colorful gourds. These displays have replaced the once empty gas station that occupied Jefferson City's Main Street for years.

But big stores (some with more than five acres of shelf space) don't fit into everyone's picture of a greener future. Concerned about food safety, factory farms, and their own environmental footprint, many consumers are returning to the past.

The modern neighborhood grocery offers locally grown produce, milk, eggs, meat and other products that support area farmers and reduce the transportation required to get food from field to fridge. It is these unique qualities that have helped foster a re-emergence of small stores in an era dominated by big-store competition.

"We're here for the people who don't want to shop at big, anonymous stores," says Damon Northweather, who owns D&D Main Street Market in Jefferson City with his wife Dana. "We started providing produce because people would come in for it. They stop by on a walk through the neighborhood or on the drive home from work."

"We have knowledge of our product that you're not going to find at a bigger store," says Damon. "Our prices compare, too. I've shopped at bigger stores and there's a misconception that their prices are so much lower. From what I've seen that just isn't true."

(Above) A Root Cellar customer is happy with the option of antibiotic and hormone free chicken from a local Missouri farm.
(Below) A customer asks the staff about her choice of breads. There aren't many questions about products or produce that can't be answered at the Root Cellar.

The Northweathers owned a garden shop on the city's outskirts for four years, but their move to the Jefferson City neighborhood of West Main Street last April changed the whole dynamic of the store — and the neighborhood.

"The neighbors are happy that we took over a rundown gas station," say the Northweathers. The store is now a colorful corner display of bedding plants and pots in spring and summer, and local apples, gourds and pumpkins in the fall. The Main Street Market is quickly becoming an integral part of the community, hosting evening block parties, watermelon seed spitting contests, and jack o'lantern carving. "We feature local musicians every week, weather permitting, and we gave out candy for Halloween," says Dana.

St. Louis also supports neighborhood groceries. Maddie Ernest, who has owned Local Harvest with Patrick Hormine for more than two years says, "I just knew our store would be successful. The time is right and people are interested in local food and business. Not everyone wants the mega-shopping experience."

Like the Main Street Market, Local Harvest is part of the community. It is located in the Tower Grove neighborhood of south St. Louis on Morgan Ford, a street that boasts many small businesses.

"The stores have become so much a part of the neighborhood that we all have our own sculpted bike racks. Our bike rack is in the shape of a carrot," says Maddie. "Many customers walk or bike to our store. Now people don't have to drive all the way to the Whole Foods and I think they appreciate the atmosphere of a smaller store. They come here and I can tell them if a farmer had a particular issue with a particular crop and what crops are always organic."

Maddie also reaches out to the community. She recently spoke at a local school and has been invited to speak at a retirement community. Local Harvest will throw local food "house parties" on request. Guests can sample an array of local and organic food with Maddie there to inform them of its health and community benefits.

The small Columbia grocery, The Root Cellar, owned by Walker Claridge and Kimberly Griffin, opened in 2002 and has been an informational resource for both Main Street Market and Local Harvest.

"I feel that my role as a local food purveyor is also that of an educator. I want to educate other businesses and especially my customers," says Griffin, "I'm the middle man between the farmer and the consumer. When a person buys food that comes from 3,000 miles away, even if it's certified organic, you still can't know what the growing practices truly are. It's different when you know the farmers and buy directly from them."

One of the services that The Root Cellar provides for its customers is a combined approach to Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). CSAs are ways for people to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. Customers purchase a "share", which gives farmers cash flow early in the season, and then they can collect a box of produce weekly throughout the season.

A Root Cellar customer looks over her choices of whole wheat pastas and sauce. The store offers many options for healthy eating.

One complaint with some CSAs is that, often times, shareholders will get a whole lot of the same kind of food. At the Root Cellar, customers are able to buy into a group of CSAs and are provided with a weekly box of mixed produce from several local farms. Also, instead of paying a large sum at the start of the growing season, members can pay for the food weekly.

"Customers are always happy with the variety of fresh, local produce," says Griffin.

Many of the Root Cellar's customers walk or bike to the store.

"It may not seem like there is a neighborhood downtown, but there are a lot of people who live in lofts over the stores and those people use our store. If they weren't coming here they'd probably just be walking to a convenience store," observes Kimberly. "I'd like to think that they are all making a conscious choice to buy local food, but that just isn't always the case. Easy access makes a difference."

This easy access is coveted by larger stores. Schnuck's has just opened a neighborhood market in St. Louis, the Culinaria, to tap into the needs of the growing downtown loft culture.

As city centers are revitalized, the need for smaller, centrally located groceries is likely to grow. The big box stores that serve large geographic areas may have to rethink their business plan.

As for the mom and pop groceries, Kimberly Griffin has a plan: "I've never needed a bigger store. I would just like to open a lot of smaller stores in different neighborhoods. This is more of what our community needs."

This story was featured in the Nov. 2009 newsletter