It’s a great day for the community on Detroit’s east side. Neighborhood Grocery, a Black-owned store, held its soft opening on Oct. 8, 2023.

 

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As AFROTECH previously told you, the community-owned grocerry store was created by Raphael Wright. He was awarded an $85,000 grant from Motor City Match, which provided the necessary capital to complete the project.

“This is a crowd-funded venture,” Wright told CBS Detroit. “Neighbors, residents, Michiganders, people outside of the state have either donated or invested money into this project… I was able to raise most of the funds pretty much on the street. The $85,000 that I received pretty much closed the financial requirements that I had.”

The grocery store could benefit the area as it’s considered a food desert. Wright’s goal is to transform his community, and he believes it starts with food.

“If you can’t feed your people, you can’t lead ’em to do anything,” Wright said in a clip posted to Instagram.

What’s more, Wright’s goal isn’t to “compete” with other major retailers. His vision for the store is to provide opportunities to local entrepreneurs that would be harder to obtain from other enterprises and major corporations.

“It’s cool to have the Hershey’s ’cause you need that type of stuff. That’s the name brand, that’s the familiar product that you might [have] grew up with as a child. You know the consistency of quality is there, but it’s somebody that stay right down the street that can provide a candy bar that’s similar. All they need is an opportunity to grow, make mistakes, fall forward and we can do that here,” he said in an interview with Another Conversation Peace.

He added, “I want to be that type of business where I can help that person down the street that make their candy bar. Five, six years later, ‘Man, I started in Neighborhood Grocery. Now, I’m in 9,000 stores all across the world.’ That makes me feel good.”