It will have “everything a conventional grocery store offers from national brands to local items and our grocery wholesaler AWG brands,” Patterson said.
The grocery store is part of a $20 million first phase of Homefull’s redevelopment of the former Carlson Elementary School site.
Future projects for the 16-acre site are expected to include housing and child care services.
GGs could open in early January
Gettysburg Grocery (GGs for short) is located in the 800 block of South Gettysburg Avenue, on the west side of the street, just south of U.S. 35.
The new grocery store might have a soft opening the week of Jan. 6 and an official grand opening the following week. However, the nonprofit said these plans are not set in stone.
Homefull CEO Patterson said the main goal of the Gettysburg Grocery is to provide affordable groceries and job opportunities to people who live in a food desert.
She said the project creates a community grocery store and opportunity center in West Dayton.
The facility also will be home to Homefull’s headquarters and offices, a regional food hub, Kettering Health primary care offices and Ziks Family Pharmacy. The entire facility is about 48,000 square feet.
Grocery sales and community donations and grants are expected to fund operations. Homefull will subsidize the store to keep prices affordable, but the nonprofit wants the market to be profitable eventually.
Patterson said the Gettysburg Grocery has a trade area of about 25,000 people. But the Dayton VA Medical Center, located just up the road, has about 2,500 employees, some of whom may also shop at the store.
“We have built a model where we can draw on the estimated 200 people naturally coming to the building for either work, health care or to pick up their prescriptions to also shop at GGs,” Patterson said.
Homefull leaders believe that there are quite a few people who live near the store who currently use public transportation to go grocery shopping. Some of these people are expected to come on foot to shop at GGs.
This is just the first phase of Homefull’s multi-phase project to redevelop the old Carlson school property. The site still has 10 acres of undeveloped land, and Homefull plans to build new housing and child care facilities on the site.
Homefull says it plans to offer 144 units of affordable housing for households earning less than 80% of the average median income.
That’s in addition to Homefull’s 34 units of permanent supportive housing for families with children immediately south of the grocery property. The south property was renovated about 8 years ago to serve families who had previously struggled with homelessness.
The nonprofit says the walkable community will be a “pillar of healthy living” in West Dayton. The new market is expected to employ about 40 people.
The area around the Gettysburg Grocery has some mom-and-pop markets, small food marts, gas stations and fast-food and carryout businesses.
But some residents who live in that part of the city are miles from a good-sized, full-service grocery store.
About three and a half years ago, a new full-service grocery store opened in a food desert in northwest Dayton. The Gem City Market, a food cooperative, opened on lower Salem Avenue, but that’s about 4 miles from the Gettysburg Grocery site.
Gem City Market has a similar kind of mission as Homefull’s store — to offer fresh food in a food desert.
But the Gem City Market recently shared that its business operations are not yet sustainable, and the market needs to increase sales to avoid closure.
Supporters say they are confident that the store can figure this out and become profitable.
Prices and inflation soared during the COVID pandemic, and the high cost of food and other essentials wreaked havoc on household budgets.
Surveys have found that most U.S. consumers say they are having a hard time affording groceries. Some food pantries have seen increased demand from struggling Ohio families.
Homefull supporters say this is going to be a special store, and they are very confident it will be a success.
About the Author
