by kevin, on December 7th, 2009
When I visit a city and get a chance to explore, I look for two things – great restaurants and cool grocery stores. Attitudes toward food and how people choose to eat is very instructive in learning a little bit about how residents spend their leisure time and disposable income. When I was recently in Phoenix for Greenbuild Expo I discovered a small neighborhood food market called The Downtown Phoenix Public Market Urban Grocery & Wine Bar.
I first stumbled on this cute and friendly retailer when returning to my hotel from the convention center at the end of a long day of educational sessions and expo floor. I stopped to check it out and found aspects of its hand crafted and local neighborhood vibe instantly appealing. Two days later I was back to shop the farmer’s market held twice weekly (Saturday morning and Wednesday evening) in the lot directly adjacent to the store. Never before had I seen or experienced such a connection between venues that should normally compete with one another – a food market and farmer’s market. But it goes further than that. Spend a little time in both and you’ll see that they’re not just adjacent friends, but totally interconnected. The food on the store shelves is the very same product being displayed on market stall tables just outside.
The farmer’s market is one of the fastest growing food retail venues in the nation. As a consumer who has been shopping at these markets for many years, I’m fascinated by what can be found in each depending on regionally grown and seasonally available crops. Over the past two years I’ve been telling food retail clients that their real competitors are usually not other retailers but the local farmer’s market. They have a draw and appeal that no grocery store can replicate, they have absolute credibility in product freshness that store operators envy, and they encourage consumers to do what few food stores can – window shop, taste test, and make experimental purchases they wouldn’t normally consider. And the average farmer’s market offers a range of produce selection that even locally focused retailers don’t carry.
I assumed that the store came first and the farmer’s market was a way to make a stronger connection to the community they served. But just the opposite is true. The farmer’s market had been operating in that location for more than five years. The store was a logical extension of successful community engagement. The weekly market and store are a program run by the Community Food Connection. It’s a non-profit organization striving to grow strong communities, healthy food, healthy families, and healthy farms. Not only is the store one of the first to open in downtown Phoenix in many years, but it’s also the first to offer one hundred percent locally grown and prepared food.
Going local is emerging as more important to consumers than natural and/or organic food options. There’s significant consumer interest and momentum away from large centralized corporate agriculture and toward food that is locally grown, locally produced, and locally consumed. And that raises an interesting question for Phoenix residents – what food can be sustainably grown in the middle of a desert? Corn, cotton, and cattle play a large roll in Arizona agriculture. The area of Yuma is the winter lettuce capital of the world. Although there is significant agricultural food production in the Phoenix region, it’s range is limited by climate and access to irrigation.
In addition to an admirable business arrangement, the 4,000 square foot store sports many sustainable design strategies worth mentioning. Locally reclaimed bowling alley floors were used for counter tops, gondola shelving was salvaged from a local Target store, and simple directional signage are made from old steel barrels. The design of both the store and wine bar is sparse, simple, and modern with minimal materials used carefully. What is surprising about the store is that it looks like it’s been open for a while, but it opened just a few weeks before my visit.
If you’ve been to either the farmer’s market or the store, please let me know about your experience. If you live in the area and haven’t yet visited, please do and support a great local market.
VRy wonderful to read it :-p