SHOALS — A group of business, farm and community leaders are looking to put a food oasis in Shoals. The community had its only grocery store close last month. Now, thanks to the efforts of multiple people a pop-up grocery will be appearing on Tuesday’s in the parking lot at Bo Macs restaurant.
“We are calling it the Shoals Grocery Grab,” said Bo Macs owner Todd Baker. “We are going to do the pop-up every Tuesday night from now until the end of October from 5 to 7 p.m. in our parking lot.”
Baker explains how the pop-up grocery will work.
“We have partnered with some local farmers who have farm stands and local vendors,” he said. “We are going to try and bring in food staples so, people can shop for meat, dairy, milk, and produce. We have also talked about the price point. Some things may be a little more expensive but everyone has agreed to try and make the products affordable.”
A survey is going out in Shoals asking people what kind of canned and boxed food items they might want to see at the new operation.
The group was able to get the dairy products through Prairie Farms who is acting as a regional partner on the project.
“We are blessed here at the restaurant that we have a lot of walk-in coolers and freezer space,” said Baker. “Some of our other partners typically do farmer’s markets and those types of things, so they have coolers that they can bring in and use. We also have some people working on some glass case coolers in case we find we need those.”
While most consumers are used to groceries being large warehouses the grocery grab operation is being described as much smaller and more intimate.
“In some ways it might resemble a farmer’s market,” said Baker. “But with the products we will have and the people involved, we are hoping to make the cost lower than what you might see at a farmer’s market.”
Baker says the push for grocery was born out of necessity. When Kroger announced its plans to close the local grocery, the work, involving a number of people, began to try and fill the void the store closing left behind.
“The second we heard the store was closing, we knew something had to be done,” he said. “That store always had a lot of foot traffic. People are always mingling there. It was like the hub of Shoals. We knew people needed a grocery option here in town.”
Baker says the organizers know the grocery grab will not fill all of needs of a full-time store, but it will offer some options one night a week until a permanent solution can be found.
“The pop-up is a temporary solution that we are trying for 90 days,” he said. We also have a group working to find some kind of permanent solution.”
While Bo Macs is involved in the creation of the pop-up grocery through its use of vendors and by making the space available for it, the organization is wide-ranging throughout the community and county.
“We have a business professor from IU on the steering committee and he has put some grad students to work on this,” said Baker. “We call ourselves the Shoals Grocery Grab. Jessica Potts with the Martin County Business Alliance is involved. Candace Jones is working on data collection and potential grants, and there are a number of local farm to table type suppliers that have joined us.”