Green Grocer RIP
Greenville Avenue foodie grocery store calls it quits despite noble efforts
After a last-gasp effort in June, the other shoe drops for Green Grocer on Greenville Avenue, which will shutter for good on January 16.
Co-owner Cassie Green confirmed that the store would be closing, despite her efforts and those from the community in the past six months to keep it afloat.
"There were just not enough sales to sustain it," she says. For the next week, there are bargains to be had: All products will be 25 percent off, with the exception of fresh-made items such as smoothies.
Green and her husband, Gary Stephens, founded Green Grocer in Chicago, then opened the second branch on Greenville Avenue in 2012. Their focus was on the items foodies claim to want: organic, sustainable, and non-GMO goods.
But unlike the Chicago store, which had less competition and stronger community support, the Dallas market is more driven toward convenience, and less toward supporting a vendor that engages with farmers and vendors and maintains a small footprint.
Green says she's not sure what their next step will be.
"We're taking it one day at a time," she says. "It's a shame, but I think we were a little ahead of our time. And there were operational things that now we would have changed. But, hey, we gave it our best, our heart, our soul, and we can feel good that we tried."