A Neighborhood Grocer: What Gary Can Learn from Melbourne, Australia

Across Gary, families of every income level share a common frustration: the nearest grocery store is too far, too inconvenient, or too unreliable to meet everyday needs. Some residents rely on emergency food relief, while others drive long distances to shop. Most simply want a neighborhood option that reflects their culture, budget, and daily lives.

To explore what a sustainable, community‑centered solution could look like, Melissa Ortiz, a local developer in Gary, recently introduced us to Georgia Savage, CEO of The Community Grocer in Melbourne, Australia. The Community Grocer has spent more than a decade building a model that brings affordable, high‑quality produce directly into neighborhoods, without the overhead of a traditional store.

Click the image to access the website.

The conversation offered a powerful blueprint for food access: a model that serves everyone, strengthens local economies, and can evolve into permanent neighborhood grocers shaped by community voice.

Lean, Mobile, and Embedded in Community Life

The Community Grocer operates six (6) weekly pop‑up markets, each open for four (4) hours, embedded directly inside public housing estates, libraries, and community hubs. But, they didn’t start with six (6) markets. They started with one (1), spent years building evidence, and only expanded when they had the data to prove impact. Georgia described their approach:

“We started with one for three years… then built our evidence base… only in the last three to four years have governments started listening.”

One of the most striking features of The Community Grocer’s success is its intentional simplicity. They pay no rent, relying instead on partnerships with libraries, neighborhood houses, and housing authorities. Georgia explained that this leanness has been essential to their survival:

“We’ve never paid rent for anything… all of our costs have really been produce and people.”

Rather than sending staff to wholesale markets at 3 a.m., The Community Grocer partners with a large wholesaler who delivers directly to each pop‑up location:

“Using a wholesaler is more expensive… but it reduces so many overheads. We don’t have to have trucks on the road… or someone at 3 a.m. at the markets.”

They buy produce by the box, not by the piece, and aim to sell out each week.

By avoiding the financial burdens of permanency, they’ve kept their focus on what matters most: access to fresh food, cultural relevance, and community ownership. The pop‑up model allows them to test demand across neighborhoods, build trust, and refine operations without investing in permanent infrastructure. This lean structure keeps prices low and makes the model financially viable.

The Financial Reality: Small Margins, Big Impact

Fresh produce has notoriously thin margins. The Community Grocer learned early that trying to cover staff wages through produce sales alone was unrealistic:

“After six years, we abandoned that… if we put prices up enough to cover wages, we were no longer a meaningful solution.”

Instead, they keep prices low, marking up produce only about 10%, and relying on grants, philanthropy, and corporate sponsorships to cover the remaining $30,000 annual gap per market.

This is a critical insight for any group in Gary considering a grant-funded community grocery: the goal cannot be to break even on product alone. Instead, the value proposition must be framed around public health, neighborhood stabilization, economic development, cultural relevance, and community dignity. These are outcomes funders will support, especially when paired with a lean operating model.

An Ecosystem That Reflects Local Culture and Talent

The Community Grocer’s markets are shaped by ongoing dialogue with shoppers. According to Georgia:

“We are in constant conversation with customers about what produce they want… that builds community ownership.”

The Community Grocer also supports residents who want to sell prepared foods.

“A lot of community members are incredibly entrepreneurial… so we’ve started a micro‑enterprise program where people can pop up alongside us and sell delicious food.”

Their presence adds vibrancy, draws in more customers, and creates meaningful income opportunities for local residents.

This matters because neighborhoods are full of home‑based cooks and bakers, youth culinary talent, diverse cultural food traditions, and aspiring small business owners. So, the pop‑up market becomes a platform for local entrepreneurship, which in turn strengthens the case for a permanent store that stocks locally made products.

Beyond just selling food, the market reduces transportation burdens, keeps dollars circulating locally, builds community connections, supports small-business growth, creates local jobs, improves health outcomes, and restores dignity and choice. And because it welcomes all income levels, the markets are dependable neighborhood anchors, something Gary has been missing for far too long.

A Grocery Model Designed for All Households

One of the most important distinctions in The Community Grocer’s approach is that it is not a food‑bank giveaway. Their markets are open to everyone, and they intentionally encourage a mix of incomes:

“Everyone’s welcome… we really love it when people from outside the public housing estate shop with us, because they come with more disposable income and enable us to buy at scale.”

This is a grocery model rooted in dignity, choice, and community ownership, not emergency relief. Prices are low because the organization is lean, not because the food is free. Customers can request items and influence what gets stocked each week. This is a model that treats residents as valued customers, not recipients.

One of the most innovative parts of their model is the Grocer Gift Card, a voucher funded by philanthropy and government partners:

“People were saying, ‘I don’t have money to spend on food, and I don’t want to go to emergency food relief.’ So we developed a voucher… people can shop like anyone else.”

This allows families to choose their own food with dignity.

Why does this matter for Gary? SNAP cuts have hit Gary hard. Many residents fall into the gap between “not eligible for assistance” and “not able to afford fresh food.” A voucher system, funded by local foundations, hospitals, or corporate partners, could fill that gap while supporting community‑run markets.

A Pathway Toward Permanent Grocery Stores

A key insight from the Melbourne model is that pop‑ups are not the end goal; they are the proving ground. Over time, consistent weekly markets build customer loyalty, establish purchasing patterns, set neighborhood expectations, provide data on demand, and provide evidence for funders and investors. This is exactly the foundation needed to justify and sustain a permanent brick‑and‑mortar neighborhood grocer.

How? Any neighborhood that consistently supports a weekly market demonstrates stable demand for fresh food, willingness to shop locally, community ownership and pride, and a viable customer base for a full-service grocery store. In other words, the pop‑up becomes a market test, a community engagement tool, and a risk‑reduction strategy for future development.

This is a phased, evidence‑driven approach that avoids the pitfalls of opening a store without community buy‑in or demand data. Considering that long-entrenched buying behaviors will need to be disrupted and reprogrammed, consistency and dependability are vital to overcoming these challenges.

Closing Thought

The Community Grocer’s success is not about scale or sophistication, but trust, consistency, and community voice. Gary has the talent, the need, and the grassroots leadership to build something similar that is lean, dignified, and deeply rooted in the neighborhoods it serves. A responsive model ensures that produce choices reflect the foods people actually cook and eat.