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We’re honored to share our story and work with the world in the hope that it will inspire more people to join our fight to help families in need access healthy foods at affordable prices.

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Good Grocer heading to a new Minneapolis location

Good Grocer heading to a new Minneapolis location

Eat Street could get another food option, but it won’t be a trendy restaurant.

The Good Grocer proposes building a six-story building with its store on the ground floor and 80 apartments above on what’s now a parking lot at Nicollet Avenue and 27th Street in Minneapolis. The design has space for 80 vehicles in a surface lot and one level of underground parking.

Good Grocer apartments fit urban mixed-use model

Good Grocer apartments fit urban mixed-use model

The Good Grocer’s plan to build a new store with 80 apartments above it in Minneapolis fits a model that continues to gain momentum in the Twin Cities’ more urban areas, according to a market expert.

The nonprofit grocery store is proposing a six-story mixed-use apartment complex on a 0.5-acre lot at 2644 Nicollet Ave. S. to replace its former location four blocks away. Hennepin County forced the store to close at its former location at 122 E. Lake St. to make room for a road project.

Good Grocer’s new building may hold 80 apartment units

Good Grocer’s new building may hold 80 apartment units

The Good Grocer wants to anchor a six-story apartment building at 2644 Nicollet Ave. S., a site previously used as a parking lot.

The building would house 80 dwelling units and a rooftop patio above the 8,500-square-foot grocery store. The site would hold 55 parking spaces in one level below ground and 25 spaces in a surface lot fronting 27th Street.

The nonprofit Good Grocer, which works to expand access to fresh food by giving discounts to volunteers, left its former location at 122 E. Lake St. last winter to make way for I-35W construction.

Good Grocer relocating to Eat Street due to I-35W construction, store liquidation sale starts today

Good Grocer relocating to Eat Street due to I-35W construction, store liquidation sale starts today

The nonprofit grocery store has called the corner of Lake and Stevens home since 2015, where it’s become an important fixture in an area with three times as many low-income residents than in the surrounding seven counties. Beyond being the only option in a food desert, the market sells discounted food and offers a unique opportunity: Pick up just one 2.5-hour volunteer shift a month and receive 25 percent off those already reasonable prices.

Good Grocer secures new home on Eat Street

Good Grocer secures new home on Eat Street

Good Grocer has landed a new location in Whittier, and the store will close for several months while a new store is constructed at 2644 Nicollet Ave. S.

The current Lake Street store is approaching a deadline to move out, and the last day of operation is Feb. 11. The store will be demolished to make way for a new southbound I-35W exit ramp to Lake Street.

For Good Grocer’s customer-volunteers, healthy food — and a sense of purpose

For Good Grocer’s customer-volunteers, healthy food — and a sense of purpose

On one of the busiest streets in south Minneapolis, where immigrants from all over the world have opened up everything from restaurants to car dealerships, there’s a small yellow and beige building whose exterior advertises meat, dairy, fruit and fresh vegetables.

The messages would seem to indicate that The Good Grocer is a typical grocery store — and it is, in all ways but one. Its customers are also its workers, people who volunteer in exchange for a discount on their purchases.

Unique Lake St. grocer runs on people power

Unique Lake St. grocer runs on people power

Customers are helping run a new grocery store in Minneapolis, which is testing whether people power can make quality food more accessible to lower-income residents.

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Good Grocer is open on Lake Street in an area of town short on fresh food. This project sounds so cool, the store is founded on the mission of helping people who want to eat fresher, better food, but can’t always afford it.

Everyone is welcome at Good Grocer, a new kind of food marketplace

Everyone is welcome at Good Grocer, a new kind of food marketplace

The small chartreuse and white building on the corner of East Lake Street and Stevens Avenue might be easy to miss, but what goes on inside might well become a model for solving the problem of fresh produce and healthier foods in lower income neighborhoods.

Grocer's Fresh Idea Lowers Prices For Low-Income Residents Who Volunteer

Grocer's Fresh Idea Lowers Prices For Low-Income Residents Who Volunteer

This grocery store has a business model you just can’t beet.

Good Grocer, a new food market in Minneapolis, is putting a fresh spin on the traditional co-op model to help low-income residents, Twin Cities Daily Planet reported. By offering reduced prices in exchange for volunteer work, the store hopes to make quality, healthy food more widely accessible.

Co-op Meets Food Desert: Cash-Strapped Volunteers Get a Discount on Groceries

Co-op Meets Food Desert: Cash-Strapped Volunteers Get a Discount on Groceries

Members of Good Grocer in Minneapolis swap bagging and stocking duties for a break on the bill.

Skip the boxes of processed macaroni and cheese and fill your shopping cart with fruits and vegetables—it’s commonsense advice for folks who want to get (or stay) healthy. But for unemployed or minimum-wage workers struggling to cough up enough cash for rent or day care costs, the sticker shock over the price of a pint of blackberries or a pound of grapes usually makes the cheap meal-in-a-box much more appealing.

Grocery Store Helps Low-Income Shoppers Afford Food With Volunteer Program

Grocery Store Helps Low-Income Shoppers Afford Food With Volunteer Program

If you’re a low-income resident in Minneapolis, having fresh and affordable food doesn’t have to be one of your worries.

That’s because a grocery store called Good Grocer uses volunteers to run the business, but with a feel-good twist: In exchange for 2.5 hours of helping out, they’ll receive 25 percent off the price of their groceries. The volunteer program began when the supermarket opened this June, founded by former pastor Kurt Vickman.

Grocery store hopes to eliminate food desert in south Minneapolis

Grocery store hopes to eliminate food desert in south Minneapolis

Good Grocer started as a church food shelf three years ago has morphed into what looks like an upscale supermarket. The only difference is there are two prices on each price tag; one for walk in customers and one for the volunteers who work at the store a couple of hours a month in exchange for a 25 percent discount.

Grocery store giving discounts for time

Grocery store giving discounts for time

In south Minneapolis, just off Lake Street and Stevens Avenue, Kurt Vickman, the owner of the Good Grocer hopes his concept is where diversity and deal will come together.

“For me, there was this part of me that wanted to be about doing the good instead of just speaking the good,” Vickman said.

Kurt Vickman interview

Kurt Vickman interview

When Kurt Vickman sees that an existing model is no longer connecting with people, he gets to work imagining a new paradigm. That has been the impetus behind all of Kurt’s innovative leadership…

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