A full-service grocery store opening in the downtown Wilmington area could be moving from an item on a list to a reality.
Tidal Creek Cooperative Food Market, now open at 5329 Oleander Drive, is considering relocating or opening a second location in the greater downtown area, said Jason Blake-Beach, general manager. Among the store's reasons are changes to the local market.
“The reason for us existing is to provide a service, and the landscape has changed. At this point, our ability to provide a service in the location that we’re in has become somewhat diminished versus where it was, say, 10 years ago,” Blake-Beach said Wednesday. “There are now 15 potential competitive grocery stores within four miles of this location. That’s pretty dense. That wasn’t the case 10 years ago, and it certainly wasn’t the case that Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Fresh Market were all out here.”
Meanwhile, in the greater downtown area, which Blake-Beach defines as including neighborhoods such as the Brooklyn Arts district, Castle Street and the southern historic residential communities out to Carolina Place and beyond, there’s a shortage of places to get basic grocery items, he said. While not taking away any of the cooperative market’s natural and organic offerings, Tidal Creek would be adding more conventionally produced items to more fully meet the needs of the community, Blake-Beach said.
Stores like Tidal Creek, which often have broader missions than national grocery chains, have started to emerge as more likely candidates in some cases to open full-service grocery stores in downtown areas, including in North Carolina, said Ed Wolverton, president and CEO of Wilmington Downtown Inc. In 2011, a co-op called Company Shops Market opened a full-service grocery store in downtown Burlington.
"The selection is not as broad as you get at a national grocery store, but there are essentials that are available," Wolverton said.
For big chains like Harris Teeter and Food Lion, demographics are critical. “They’re looking at 7,500 to 10,000 residences [as a requirement], and we’re nowhere near that right now,” Wolverton said of Wilmington’s downtown population.
Still, “there are national retailers that are beginning to adjust their business models for urban settings,” Wolverton said, using Target and Wal-Mart as examples. “Right now, they are more concentrated in large metropolitan downtown areas such as Washington, D.C., and Chicago,” he said.
Part of the switch is a result of some population shifts. “They are recognizing as more people come to live in downtown areas that the trend is improving for their potential customers, and that office workers and out-of-town visitors often are in the city centers as well that can provide enough customer demand when combined together,” Wolverton said.
One of the goals of “Downtown Wilmington: Transforming the Future Today,” a WDI strategic planning document, is to “identify and recruit new retail shops, including a grocery store, and targeted national retailers.”
Wolverton pointed out that in November, three retailers with national or regional reach opened new stores downtown – the regional business Coastal Urge opened its fifth store at 117 Grace St.; Outdoor Equipped, an online business with customers all over the globe, established its first brick-and-mortar store at 272 N. Front St.; and Cape Fear Spice Merchants, part of a Michigan-based franchise, began welcoming customers Nov. 1.
“Those are the kinds of steps that we need to build upon,” Wolverton said.
Blake-Beach emphasized that Tidal Creek isn’t considering opening a store on Front Street, for several reasons.
“Space is at a premium down there,” he said. “You have to move out a little bit in order to find space. No full-service grocery store can survive with a tiny platform.”
On Oleander Drive, Tidal Creek occupies about 7,500 square feet. Some of the other reasons the store is considering relocating or opening a second location is what Blake-Beach describes as less-than-ideal attributes at its current address, including parking, retail synergy, visibility and access.
The potential change or addition of a new store for Tidal Creek would be “a complicated process, and it’s not one that’s going to happen overnight,” Blake-Beach said.
But as the business considers a new location, continuing downtown revitalization efforts are another draw.
“We would be excited to be able to participate and have that be part of the service we’re offering, by helping to continue that process and make the greater downtown area a healthier, more vibrant place to live,” Blake-Beach said.
