EDITOR'S NOTE: Indy Fresh Market will host a grand opening event at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24, at the store (6160 E. 38th St.)
The first thing you see when you walk into Indy Fresh Market on the city’s northeast side is fresh produce: juicy tomatoes, crisp apples, dewy lettuce.
While this likely seems like a defining feature of most grocery stores, it’s monumental for a neighborhood that previously had a lack of access to fresh foods, said founder and co-operator Marckus Williams.
“Vegetables make the kids grow strong,” Williams said. “Our first wall when we walk in the store is the best section we have.”
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The 16,772-square-foot, $3.6-million Indy Fresh Market, located at 6160 E. 38th St., opened Sept. 27. The store is a collaboration led by Bloomington-based Cook Medical in partnership with community organizations like IMPACT Central Indiana, which provided the startup capital, Goodwill and the United Northeast Community Development Corporation.
The store is operated by Williams and co-founder Michael McFarland, longtime friends who both grew up in the northeast side and previously owned a small grocery store, about the size of a convenience store, nearby on 38th Street.
After a longer-than-expected construction process and over two years of waiting, the store opened with what Williams called tremendous community support and a collective “sense of relief.”
“I'll say me and Michael feel like heroes around here,” he said.
Kroger, Walmart had closed
Indy Fresh Market fills a dire need for food access on the northeast side following two significant closures — a Kroger at the now-dilapidated Devington Plaza off East 46th Street that shuttered in 2018 and a nearby Walmart Neighborhood Market, which closed in 2019 on East 38th Street.
These closures created food deserts in large sections of the northeast side where neighbors were without access to grocery stores for miles in either direction. As of a few years ago, about 6,000residents in Indy Fresh Market's census tract lived more thanone mile away from the nearest traditionalgrocery store, according to previous IndyStar reporting in 2021.
The supermarket, built right along IndyGo's Purple Line, was designed to change that. Cook Medical, which was already investing in the neighborhood by constructing an adjacent device supplier manufacturing center that opened in May 2022, built the store. Long term, Williams and McFarland are positioned to eventually own 100% of the store operations and real estate under a rent-to-own model.
Indy Fresh Market is also a second-chance opportunity employer, meaning the store hires employees regardless of criminal record. McFarland said he and Williams wanted to make sure they could employ people from the surrounding neighborhoods — without barriers.
“We didn’t want anything to stop them from serving their community as well,” he said.
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Market to bring millions in economic impact
The economic effect of Indy Fresh Market will likely be a boon for the area. The grocery store is expected to bring a one-time economic impact of $11.1 million and an additional annual impact of $4.6 million, according to a 2022 study from the Indiana University Public Policy Institute.According to that same study, Indy Fresh Market is expected to create 39 direct jobs and employ dozens of additional part-time workers.
But providing a grocery store to a community that needed one isn’t the only hope behind the project. Opening Indy Fresh Market could also be a harbinger for future development, like housing or other types of retail, which United Northeast Community Development Corporation deputy director Greg Garrett said the area along 38th Street is fertile ground for and desperately needs.
“Having a good store here, a solid store that is reliable, will also improve on that look for investment for people who come here and invest not only their dollars, but also maybe move here and become a part of the community,” he said.
East side celebrates Indy Fresh Market
Above all, Indy Fresh Market is run by and for the community. Each aisle is named after a different east side street — Arlington, Devington, Sherman — proudly displayed above signs canned vegetables and cleaning supplies.
Williams said after just a week of business, the store's already quickly becoming a neighborhood hot spot where people can catch up with each other by the meat counter or in the frozen foods aisle.
“It was like a family reunion sometimes,” he said.
But it’s not just the opportunity to chat with neighbors that's bringing in customers. Gertrude Wilson, who lives nearby, said she was pleasantly surprised by how clean the store was, as well as the wide selection of products Indy Fresh Market had while shopping on a Tuesday afternoon.
“I am so appreciative to have somewhere to go and actually find some items that I've been looking for that I haven’t been able to find,” she said.
Those items? Chicken wings that Wilson called lovely. She also liked the variety of options in the meat and produce sections and the market’s cleanliness. Wilson plans to continue shopping there because she lives close by and the store is better-stocked than the Kroger she used to frequent.
“When I'm getting ready to make that grocery list,” she said, “I know this is the store that I'll be coming to.”
Phil Powell, who lives about a mile from the market, said having a grocery store much closer to his home is helpful for his mother. Previously, they’d been driving to the Kroger on Binford Boulevard.
“That's a plus for her because she don't have to run all over,” he said.
As for what the future holds, Williams and McFarland are planning to open more stores, including another on the east side, though they didn’t say where it would be located.
The plan is to build grocery stores like wildfires in every area of Indianapolis lacking access to fresh food, said Williams. He's hoping he can make the community he grew up in proud.
“It’s a whole new day for them,” said Williams.
Contact business reporter Claire Rafford at 317-617-3402 or email crafford@gannett.com.
