BAKERSFIELD — A group of residents has started planning to open a new food market in the building that housed the Bakersfield Village Deli, a Main Street institution that shut its doors at the end of May.
About 15 people came out to Bakersfield Town Hall last week to share ideas about how they could acquire the Village Deli’s former space, what products a new market could sell and the funding sources they could leverage for the project.
Brenda Churchill, who’s on the Bakersfield Selectboard, led the Sept. 29 meeting. She decided to organize it after reading a VTDigger story about how the Village Deli’s closure further limited the food options available to local residents, she said.
The deli was well-known for its sandwiches and pizza. It also had a small selection of groceries and was well-stocked with local beer.
There’s still a Short Stop convenience store up the street, but its food offerings are limited. And now, there’s nowhere left in town serving takeout.
“It took me, probably, five minutes of reading to say: ‘Ah, heck. Maybe there’s an opportunity here,’” Churchill said at the meeting.
The closest large grocery store is a Hannaford more than 10 miles north in Enosburg. Locals also shop at the stores in St. Albans City, which are about twice as far.
The Village Deli was also a gathering place in town, former owner Jen Montague said in August. She and her husband, Shaun, decided to close the market, in part, because they were burnt out and worried about getting sick, Jen Montague said.
Now, Churchill and others want to open up a new market in the deli’s place — and with the community’s help.
One pathway would be to establish a trust, Churchill said. She cited the Albany Community Trust, which helped reopen that Orleans County town’s general store earlier this year, as an example. The new market could also be run as a co-op.
The Preservation Trust of Vermont has supported multiple community store redevelopment projects across the state. And Churchill said there are many grant programs that the Bakersfield group could apply for, too.
One of the group’s first decisions would be whether to rent or buy the deli’s old space, Churchill said. Members also wanted a better sense of what was left in the building after the old market closed and have planned a walkthrough this week.
The roughly 3,500-square-foot building is listed for sale at around $250,000. An apartment above the store is currently occupied, Churchill said.
Several meeting attendees said they want the new store to sell produce from local farms and maybe locally roasted coffee. Others said there’s a need for good breakfast food in the area, which could draw a solid morning crowd.
Churchill said the market should avoid competing directly with local producers, since “they’re doing that for survival.” The store could feature just one or two items from a given producer, some attendees said, which may get customers interested in the producer’s other products, too.
One advantage the market would have is its location, Churchill said, since Route 36 — which intersects Main Street near the building — is a key road for commuters in the region.
“We have a convenient spot,” she said.
Sharon Lawyer, who lives in town, said after the meeting she’s excited by the possibility of helping open a new market as part of the “next phase of my life.”
Locals don’t often invite people over to their homes, Lawyer said. But she still wants to see people and thinks the market is a place that would happen.
“It’s the idea that you go to the store and you ‘run into’ somebody,” she said.
The group led by Churchill is set to meet again Oct. 13 to further discuss locals’ ideas for a new market. The meeting is at 6 p.m. at Bakersfield Town Hall.
