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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Tidal Creek Looks to Open Grocery Store in Greater Downtown Wilmington

Isabelle Shepherd, WHQR
The area contained within the red boundary is the portion of greater downtown Wilmington that Tidal Creek Coop is considering for a new location.

Much of Wilmington’s greater downtown area is a USDA designated food desert. But a local grocery store is looking to change that. 

Tidal Creek is a consumer coop, which differentiates them from other grocery stores. Instead of generating top dollar, their goal is to provide a service. Jason Blake-Beach, the general manager of Tidal Creek, says the store is looking into two possibilities that would bring a full service grocery store to greater downtown Wilmington. They’ll either keep their current location on Oleander Drive and open a second shop. Or, they might completely relocate and open a bigger store.

Jason Blake-Beach says the new shop would expand options using a crossover model:

"Throughout our history, we’ve primarily focused on natural and organic product offerings, but a piece of the puzzle would be us expanding our product line to include more, to reach a greater population, regardless of income."

That means conventional food offerings. Blake-Beach says that, whenever possible, Tidal Creek would source from local vendors.

His best guess is that these changes could happen within the next year and a half.