It’s a Tuesday afternoon, but Little House Green Grocery is bustling. Customers drop in looking for eggs or ginger. A delivery from Billy Bread Bakery replenishes the shelves, nearly empty after the previous day’s snow, with fresh-baked goodness. A young couple chats at the register for nearly 10 minutes about the winning recipes from a recent party.
The scene is just what Erin Wright, C’07, and Jess Goldberg envisioned when they opened Little House just a year ago in the Bellevue neighborhood in Northside Richmond.
As a veteran of Richmond’s farmers markets, community gardens, and the local food movement, Wright knows good food is about more than organic labels. Buying fresh food direct from the grower establishes a community among producers and consumers and encourages a better understanding of the life of food before it’s served up on a plate.
People don't want an anonymous experience anymore.
What’s sometimes missing, though, is convenience. “Since I worked at farmers markets, I was doing all of my shopping in a way that I really valued,” Wright said. “But I was frustrated that I’d still have to go to other places. I thought, there’s no reason not to have everything in one place. Convenience stores, they have a shadow of this, but why can’t we do that on a small level with fresh food?”
After the success of Little House, others quickly followed suit. Neighborhood markets have cropped up in Union Hill and the Fan, and a team is raising funds to open a food cooperative in Scott’s Addition.
“People don’t want an anonymous experience anymore,” Wright said. “We can follow up. We can be a part of their celebrations. We can special order. We can recommend.”
In some industries, a similar business just a few miles away might equal competition. The nature of the neighborhood market, however, means these small grocers can work together on a common goal.
“It would be awesome if that’s the way that everybody started shopping, in their little neighborhood stores,” Wright said. “On snow days, this is where people are going to come, or when they’re going home from work. It’s not an errand you run. Everyone is rallying around their neighborhood.”
