Chicory Market, a local grocer in Oxford, Miss., is beginning construction to expand their space and production. The store provides farm-fresh ingredients sourced from the surrounding community to the residents of the city.
“We’ve had so much support from the community since we’ve moved here into Midtown (Shopping Center), and we’re already busting at the seams after two years here,” John Martin, the owner of Chicory Market, said. “We just need a little more room for our customers, for our team to operate.”
Many students at the university enjoy shopping at Chicory Market and perusing their selection of fresh groceries.
“I really like their juices; they have a fresh-squeezed orange juice,” Cameron MacDonald, a sophomore marketing major, said. “Their guacamole is pretty good, and then they have these little energy shots that I really like.”
Martin said that the goal of the expansion is to broaden their opportunities to support local farms while also creating a larger working environment.
“We just see a lot of opportunity to support more local food through our prepared foods program,” Martin said. “That’s going to be a big focus of the expansion … and (to) have more room for our staff to receive and store our inventory.”
They began planning this construction last summer and have been working hard since to get it off the ground.
“Like a lot of these projects, it’s been ongoing,” Martin said. “There have been some starts and changes, and we’re finally ready to move forward.”
This expansion will be one of two grocery store updates to the Oxford community. Sullivan’s Grocery, a Mississippi grocery store chain, is set to begin construction in Colonnade Crossing early this summer.
The expansion will allow the market to cater more to some of the customer favorites, which is their prepared food line.
“We’ll have a lot more prepared foods, which people love to come eat, (such as) sandwiches, our ready-to-eat meals,” Martin said. “We’ll have more salads, soups. We’re adding about 200 square feet to that department.”
The additional space will create room to add processing for locally sourced meats.
“We’re adding a bunch of room, so we’ll have more … products that are processed in-house, like sausages, ground products, more cuts and meat,” Martin said. “We’ll be able to do more whole animal butchering.”
In addition to increasing inventory, the construction will also make the store a more open and spacious area for people to shop.
“I think customers will just have a little more room to circulate,” Martin said. “On busy weekends, like during football season, it gets really crowded in there. We’re hoping to get a little more breathing room.”
As with all growth processes, there are logistical challenges that the business is experiencing and working though. A main concern is Chicory Market’s sandwich production.
“We’re doing all the sandwiches all the time,” Martin said. “That creates this kind of logistical complexity in the back of house to figure out how to make that production happen.”
In order to keep the store running smoothly, they are strategic with where the construction is located.
“Everything we’re doing right now is either in an area of the store that’s not operating yet, or it’s in back-of-house,” Martin said. “We try to keep it modular so that we don’t have to totally close down.”
Students who shop at Chicory said that they are excited for the expansion, believing that it will improve their shopping experience.
“I like how small it is right now,” Tiffany Cox, a sophomore law studies major, said. “But they have so many good things there that I would definitely go, just to check it out when it’s there.”
