SYRACUSE, N.Y (NCC News) – Syracuse Cooperative Market became the latest business to join the Salt City Market community when it opened its doors Wednesday morning.
Salt City Market already has a bit of everything. From ethnic cuisines, too on the go coffee, and even community rooms for organizations to meet and plan. However, the Cooperative Market will add the one thing Salt City has been missing, a fully operational grocery store.
“This is downtowns first full service grocery store,” Jeremy DeChario, the Cooperative Markets general manager, said. “We’ll serve the downtown community, the near west side, and the south side.”
The Syracuse Cooperative Market has held one location in the Wescott neighborhood since 1972, but has looking to expand for the past seven years. The location they selected in Salt City Market intrigued the co-op because it was in an area with few grocery options around.
“A lot of these folks are served by convenient stores, predominantly, who have a lack of fresh food options available, and that’s why this location was chosen,” DeChario said.
The downtown area has long been a part of the city where residents have limited access to fresh food. for those without a car it can be challenging to get to a Tops or Wegmans, but now the Cooperative Market is only two blocks from the Syracuse transit hub, and walking distance for many. Dechario added that in an “food desert” like this the best thing the city can do is rely on one market to fulfill needs, and not over saturate the neighborhood with grocers.
“If you invest too much in a lot of small stores all you’ll end up doing is pushing businesses out, and be back up where you started.” DeChario said.
The Syracuse Cooperative Market will be providing natural foods daily from 8 a.m until 9 p.m. For more information on the co-op you can visit their Facebook page.
