Thomas MacMillan Photo
Jones and baby Hazel check out new Elm City Market.
On her first visit to downtown’s new co-op grocery, Gwyneth Jones mentioned to the manager that the price of milk seemed steep at $4.39 a gallon. He promptly lowered it to $3.79.
It was the latest of some 500 prices the Elm City Market has lowered over the last few days, store manager Mark Regni said.
His new co-op grocery store held a soft opening for members only on Wednesday, in advance of the store’s official first day on Thursday.
The co-op occupies the ground floor of 360 State, the new mixed-use tower downtown at the corner of Chapel and State streets. The store’s long anticipated arrival is the culmination of months of planning, after original plans to open a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods at the location fell through. A ribbon-cutting ceremony took place at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
As the store opens its doors, Regni said he’s seeking to address what has been one of the concerns about the new co-op since it was first announced in May 2010: Will it be affordable to shop there?
Regni said he and his staff have been working hard to make sure the answer to that question is yes.
“We want to know we’re competitive on everything in the store,” Regni said. “We did a lot of homework. We spent hours and hours going to other stores” checking prices, he said.
On Monday night, Regni went through the entire store with one of his managers and lowered prices on about 500 items, he said.
Somehow the milk was overlooked. But Jones spotted it right away when she came in to shop on Tuesday with her daughter Hazel strapped to her chest.
She mentioned to Regni that the price of the milk was much higher than at Stop & Shop, and Regni told his staff to lower the price.
“I thought that was impressive,” Jones said, whose shopping cart held salmon and asparagus for dinner.
Jones, who lives in East Rock, said she’s a fan of the co-op. “I love the idea. I love that it’s close,” she said.
“But the pricing has to be reasonable,” she added. So far — now that the cost of milk has come down — the prices look good, she said.
In his office moments later, Regni said the milk price adjustment is typical of how the market will run. Regni, who is a graduate of the Boston School of the Museum of the Fine Arts and the Disney animation school in California, sat beneath two wintertime scenes he painted himself. Regni also has 30 years of experience in natural-foods grocery stores like Wild Oats and Whole Foods.
He said he was grateful Jones was “gracious enough to point out” that the milk was a little expensive. The price was the result of a miscalculation, Regni said.
Regni said he has known people will be looking closely at the store’s prices since the first public meeting about the market. “That was voiced as an express concern from that evening forward.”
There will always be some price differences between Elm City Market and other grocery stores in town, but he aims to keep them as small as possible, Regni said.
Out in the market, Harvey Koizim of Wooster Square selected some strip steak to add to the chocolate gelato in his shopping basket. “I think it’s nice,” he said of the new market. “Nice selection. Nice wide aisles.”
“We need one in the area,” said Robert Esposito, another denizen of Wooster Square. He was checking out the muffins and pastries that are not normally a part of his organic-only no-processed-foods vegan diet. His cart held tempeh, bananas and almond milk.
Almond milk is just one of the many “milks” on offer, including hemp milk, rice milk, and, of course, soy milk.
In the same aisle, you can pick up cereals to go with the milk. Big brands like Honey Bunches of Oats share the shelves with “all natural” selections like Barbara’s Multigrain Puffins.
Similarly, in the fizzy soft drink section, Pepsi is stocked below a wide selection of kombucha, and above locally made Foxon sodas.
In the beer aisle, Tim Miller of Miller beer (no relation) was stocking Corona light below a variety of artisanal brews, including Innis and Gunn, three varieties of Chimay, and some fancy bottles of Framboise Lambic.
In a snack aisle, vegetarian Fair Havener Margarita Montezuma picked up a Bobo’s Oat Bar and a bag of Snikiddy baked fries for her grandkids. “It’s good for your body,” she said. “This is where I’m going to be coming. Healthier!”
Her son Jonathan Mckeithen stopped by to give her a hug, wearing his chef uniform from the meats section. A former cook at Mama Mary’s Soul Food on Whalley Avenue, he had been working on the rotisserie chicken that filled the air with the fragrance of roasting meat.
Yale chemistry professor Martin Saunders and his wife Lola Odiaga-Saunders were perhaps the most local shoppers in the store. They had ridden the elevator down from their apartment in 360 State. Odiaga-Saunders had picked out some organic figs, walnuts, flowers, and sliced watermelon.
“We are excited. We’ve been waiting for it,” Saunders said.
“I’m so happy,” said Matt Feiner, owner of the Devil’s Gear Bike Shop next door to the market. The new store will be good for his business, he said. A city needs a market downtown, he said. “It just feels nice. It smells nice.”
Andrew Gilson, the supervisor of the bulk section, was keeping a close eye on the 185 bins of granola, grains, nuts, and dried fruits. Asked about whether employees plan to form a union, he said there hasn’t been any discussion about it, and no meetings are planned. Most workers are pretty happy with the packages they’ve been given, which include good health benefits, he said.
Anthony Cavaliere was the store’s first customer, at 10:10 a.m.
He said he works right around the corner at Phil’s Hairstyles. “I cut hair.”
“I’m going to be shopping here,” he said.
He picked up a bottle of Advil to counteract the daily aches and pains of an 81-year-old body.