Will Big Eggplant come to the north side?
The news that the Willy Street Co-op may open its third location in the space where Pierce’s Market now operates across from Warner Park is good news for the north side. And for more reasons than me being able to buy better kale closer to my house.
Having a Willy Street Co-op on the north side is a vote of confidence. The co-op is a known brand in Madison. It is, in some people’s eyes perhaps, our home-grown version of a boutique brand. It’s a brand that offers quality and integrity to the community. If the co-op invests in the north side, it says to the city at large that the north side is a place worth investing in.
On the same day that the co-op announced plans to consider the Sherman Avenue location, the online housing site Zillow published the results of a study that shows that homes increase in value more rapidly with the presence of a quality grocery store in the neighborhood — specifically Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, in the study. But in a city like Madison, where buying local is often crucial, a Willy Street Co-op location is an analogue to those national chains.
In the press release announcing the study, Zillow Group economist Stan Humphries says, "Like Starbucks, the stores have become an amenity in their own right — a signal to the home-buying public that the neighborhood they're located in is desirable, perhaps up-and-coming, and definitely improving."
The north side needs more of those signals.
When my husband and I bought our home on the north side, there was a huge, beautiful, brand-new Kohl’s grocery store anchoring the area shopping center (then called Sherman Plaza, now renamed Northside Town Center). In short order, Roundy’s bought Kohl’s and closed the store. The Kohl’s space still sits vacant today, Roundy’s still paying the rent. It’s a blight on the shopping center, a blight on the area, a sign that says “nobody wants to do business here.” The north side could use businesses in that space.
The north side could benefit from, say, a Food Fight restaurant. Food Fight is a known local brand that creates attractive restaurants with forward-looking menus. The strength that comes from the Food Fight name would be just as crucial as the restaurant itself.
The north side recently did get a new place to eat – Madtown Chicken and Fish. I’m always glad to see a new place open, but this is a counter service spot offering the same kinds of fried foods already available at places like Jim’s Meat Market and Culver’s. I like fried fish as much as the next person, but what the area needs is something that says “the north side deserves something better than this.”
The north side is a large area with many diverse residents, living in apartments and homes at many different price points. Some residents can’t afford to eat out. Some of them can’t afford to buy an organic cauliflower. Many other north-siders can, and want to, without having to drive to Middleton or East Towne or Atwood Avenue.
My neighborhood has an influx of young families, drawn here by good housing stock at lower prices than in other areas of the city, proximity to Lake Mendota and other beautiful natural areas, and little need to ever get on the Beltline to commute.
Some area residents have voiced concern about lower-income residents being able to afford co-op prices (although the store itself maintains it tries to provide what products are needed most in the communities it serves).
But Pierce’s has not been a cheap place to shop. And Pierce’s is departing when its lease expires, regardless. Opinions differ about what may have gone wrong with Pierce’s, but bit-by-bit, quality, service and selection went downhill. (The Wisconsin State Journal quotes Pierce’s general manager Paul Frey as saying the store has always turned a profit.)
Worrying about the price of organic veggies at the co-op before the store has even definitely decided to take the space? Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.
