Gem City Market!

The Gem City Market will open on May 12.

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The grand opening of the community co-op grocery store in West Dayton. The first grocer in nearly 40 years is opening up shop to local residents who were deprived of a grocery store. When Kroger left West Dayton in 2008, it put a gaping hole in the community. Soon after that, Aldi left the Dayton area in 2018. 

Dayton has struggled to pull in national grocers to the area. When they demolished Parkside Homes, the city was hoping to score a Walmart Neighborhood Store. It did not come. When Kroger wanted to build a Marketplace at the corner of Wayne Avenue and Wyoming Street, the deal was supposed to bring up the Walnut Hills and Twin Towers neighborhood. The company that wanted to build it, decided to back out and then went bankrupt. Grocerylane (or known as Groceryland) was destroyed by the massive tornado that hit Dayton in 2019. The Old North Dayton community was robbed of a grocery. East Dayton was robbed of a grocery store when a devastating fire destroyed the Food 4 Less store. Now a Dollar General (Market) has replaced the location.

When I heard about the Gem City Market in 2014, I thought it was going to wishful thinking. I am sure glad I was proven wrong. It took almost five years before they broke ground. During the time, they had delays in building and getting the proper zoning in place.

But now, Gem City Market is complete and will open for business in mid-May. 

Gem City Market, on the corner of Salem and Superior Ave., will be a vibrant, community-centered grocery store with well-trained, friendly workers (who are also owners!) who know the value of providing exceptional service. The Market will restore grocery service to Northwest Dayton for the first time in over a decade.

For those who live in the city of Dayton, Ohio, you know this city is part of the Rust Belt. This community of 142,000 residents have seen rapid declines since the 1980s. Now 40 years later, no sign of improvement. 

It appears that neighboring Springfield, Ohio is considered one of the hottest places to buy a home. The city with a population of 33,000 residents will see a slight rise due to the housing boom.

Dayton, Ohio does not have a Walmart in the city limits. The Kroger Company will eventually close the Smithville Road and Burkhardt Road locations and merge it with the proposed Kroger Marketplace in the old Kmart facility. It will force East Dayton residents to Riverside, Ohio for their local grocery needs.

It will also close one of the few remaining classic Kroger stores in the area.

West of Interstate 75 is considered a food desert. Yeah, there's IGA grocers, Foodtown, Save-a-Lot and People's Market. 

Kroger planted a location in Fort McKinley, an unincorporated community just a mile outside of Dayton. Walmart is located in Butler Township, Englewood and Moraine. It abandoned Trotwood and moved four miles. Meijer is located in Englewood and Huber Heights. Meijer abandoned its Dayton location and moved six miles into Huber Heights.Target is located in Huber Heights and Miami Township.

Aldi is located in Englewood.

The residents of Dayton have choices of Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Dollar General and local oddities.

Being a food desert is rooted in racism. Please let Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) know this.

With communities of color struggling to survive in a pandemic, systematic racism and gun violence, food deserts exist.

Welcoming a grocery store in West Dayton is a small step but a long way to improve the community once beloved as the Gem City.