Comments on: A Downtown Grocery

By: Daryl Becker

Daryl Becker — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 23:03:39 +0000

I agree that there needs to be something done with the Classen Homeland. I am from South Dakota, and have relatives that live in OKC. One of those relatives is a contractor there in OKC. Anyways, I have been in that location of Homeland, and thought it either needed to be renovated or move to a new location closer to downtown OKC, especially to cater to the organic/natural food crowd. If I had to choose another grocery chain to move into the Classen Homeland, it would be Hy-Vee. They are really popular up here in South Dakota, and when my relatives from Oklahoma come up here, they always have to stop at a Hy-Vee, because of the huge selection of food and the cleanliness of the stores.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:42:52 +0000

Sage, a cafe with gourmet market is opening on the corner of 2nd and Central, in deep deuce. Their articles say they will have organics and specialty groceries

By: Gary

Gary — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:06:01 +0000

Just another thought on the downtown grocery store. What about the SE corner of 3rd and Walnut? There is that church next door, but all of the other surrounding areas are residential. It would be walking distance for Deep Deuce, Brownstones, Maywood Lofts, The Leslie and close enough for Block 42 as well. According to the OKCA, it is owned by the City of OKC.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:53:08 +0000

It would be foolish for Homeland to close the 18th&Classen location. They would lose all of their business to the Walmart Neighborhood store since there is better pricing (esp. for pet food). I have lived near that store for close to 30 yrs. I frequent it 2 to 3 times a week. The store is doing a good job improving the product categories and is clean.The reason I go to the store is becase it is small and the lines are very quick and the people are nice, helpful and accessible. I know people moving into the newly renovated properties in Midtown and they are going to the Homeland without any gripes. I would like them to improve the facade and install landscaping.

By: Keith

Keith — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:25:24 +0000

That’s great, Steve. Thanks for replying.

I guess I’m surprised to hear this from Homeland as a market catering to urban dwellers is kind of outside their little niche of the grocery world. However, it doesn’t look like anyone else is stepping up to the plate so it could be a smart gamble for them. Compared with any other decent-sized American town, the grocery options in OKC are incredibly lacking – truly an untapped specialty market. Bring it!

By: SW

SW — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:27:21 +0000

If we’re talking “boutique”, then I like Seth’s location suggestion as that is the audience you’ll need to be most accessible to for success. However, I think we’d need a second boutique east of Broadway for that residential base as well. In the case of boutiques, we’d need to keep the current Homeland around, though a renovation would be nice. As a 2-4 times per week shopper at that location because it’s a 7 minute walk/1 minute drive away, it would be a drag for it to go. I must say that in addition to my visits I drive by it at least 4 times a day and it does always seem busy. From the business perspective why would Homeland sacrifice losing that customer base? I know a former 10-year manager of a Homeland that tells me stories all the time about how much they’d do to keep customers because they had done the math and knew how much it cost to pull in a new customer and to re-acquire former customers once lost. Closing this store seems contrary to that philosophy if it still exists.

If we’re not talking a boutique, I like a location in any of the lots in the vicinity of Brown’s Bakery (sounds similar to Steve’s suggestion). As the Brown’s location was once a grocery store, we know that location works for that purpose. Also that area is close enough to some of the neighborhoods served by the current Homeland that those customers might stay. And considering the future residential concepts for that area that are floating around, a grocery there might help increase the pace of current or future developments via some influence on pre-sales.

By: Seth

Seth — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:38:23 +0000

I would propose one of the empty buildings downtown between Hudson and Walker on Main Street, make it multilevel, and have hanging signage. This way it has easy access to the residence of the Park Harvey, Montgomery, Regency Tower, the Arts District, as well as all other other communities that would drive, plus there is a parking garage near by so as to eliminate the need for excess surface parking. Another bonus is that it is near, 1) The Character Institute, which has a lot of long term visitors who might want to shop. 2) Established successful retail (Eden Salon, and the Italian Eatery (name escapes me))

By: slackmeyer

slackmeyer — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:44:28 +0000

Keith, what I’m hearing is extremely encouraging when it comes to vision from Homeland for this potential project.

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:40:35 +0000

Homeland needs to prove that they’ve bought into the overall downtown “vision” in the form of designs or discussion from them on how they would like to approach the design before I start thinking this is a very good idea.

By: Steven

Steven — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:54:35 +0000

John “Radar”, can’t use the old Mercy Hospital Site, they are “building” Overholser Green there (http://www.okctalk.com/okc-metro-area-talk/11656-shocker-overholser-green-project-completely-changed.html).

To the HEB posters, there has been tons of contact with HEB, again HEB has made it clear they have no desire to locate out of Texas at this time, ain’t gonna happen.

Whole Foods, probably will happen, but be in suburban OKC or Norman first. The Classen Homeland carries a decent selection of natural and organic and gourmet goods, and those in the know have made it clear that they would need to carry a lot more to make a downtown/Midtown location successful.