Growing Markets

Ever wished you could shop at City Market [1] without venturing into, well, the city? General manager Clem Nilan has announced that the co-op board plans to open a second neighborhood location in the greater Burlington area [2].

G2G Research Group, a California-based consulting company that specializes in market research for food co-ops, identified the need for a second store. It mentioned City Market’s “very high sales-per-square-foot performance level” and parking issues as indicators that shoppers might have a better experience if they weren’t all packed into one location. Two less-crowded stores with easier parking, instead of one congested one, looked like the obvious way to go, says Nilan.

The researchers examined the micropopulations of the Archibald Street area in northern Burlington, downtown Winooski and the South End Pine Street corridor to see which could best sustain a new market. According to Nilan, Pine Street won out, but that doesn’t mean City Market is shopping South End real estate just yet. “We have to really begin our internal process,” he explains. “We work with a board of directors. We have to vet a project against our policies.”

Nilan can’t name a projected opening date this early in the process. But don’t count out Winooski or Archibald Street just yet. Either could become the location for yet a third City Market, he says.

More than 100 miles from Burlington, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Healthy Living Market [3] is opening its own second location. Construction of the 35,000-square-foot store will most likely begin this summer [4]. Like the South Burlington Healthy Living, the new market will feature a café and learning center, as well as a full-service meat and fish counter.

The college town will get a little healthier — and tastier — when the market opens in January 2013.