A sustainable grocery store supporting community needs
This week’s Black Business Spotlight is Storehouse Grocery and Coffee of East St. Paul. The proprietor, Carl Johnson, opened for business in 2019, primarily providing coffee and groceries. He sat down with the MSR to introduce his company to our readers.
MSR: What inspired you to launch/start your business?
Carl: We were doing community meals, catered meals, and we wanted to do a grocery store that would [speak to] affordability and necessity.
MSR: How does your business impact the community?
Carl: We’ve been here for five years and are a sustainable grocery store. We are environmentally sustainable and offer zero-waste coffee. We support the community by donating our profits to feeding kids.
We feed around 50 to 60 kids a week during the summer and host community events. We do that for advocacy groups. We do events for city and state groups. We’re a cultural center that creates safe places for people to share their identities and talk about the things that matter.
MSR: Was there a pivotal moment when you decided, “This is something we need to do?”
Carl: During COVID-19 in 2020, our grocery store was open. But with everything that was happening with George Floyd, in addition to the young man in Brooklyn Center who was shot afterward, I started to see Black families in Brooklyn Center that didn’t have any food.
So we started offering free food during that time. I saw that we needed a place where people could have these difficult conversations and still feel safe, building community.
MSR: How do you acquire your food?
Carl: We buy our food from distributors and wholesalers. We look for people who want to partner to end food insecurity and create sustainable growth. We buy food from Hy-Vee, Henry Foods, and independent food sellers.
In the summer, we sell plants for people to grow their food. Then, farmers come in to provide affordable, healthy foods. One specific farm, “Our Roots Urban Farmers,” sells its produce for under $5.
MSR: What has been your biggest challenge in owning a business?
Carl: My biggest challenge is marketing. I need to reach the people who need to hear about our products and services and continue to reach them. Marketing is one of the hardest things to do as a business.
MSR: What has been the most rewarding part of owning your business?
Carl: People. We get to know people, see people, hear their stories, and learn where they are from. We just started interviewing our customers. We do a one-minute interview with them on our YouTube page, and we do shorts just talking about who they are, what they do, what they like, and what brings them to the store.
We wanted people to see that there’s more than meets the eye with people just coming to get coffee. These people have incredible gifts and talents, and they live in this neighborhood. This neighborhood has untapped potential.
MSR: Why did you choose this neighborhood?
Carl: We wanted to end food insecurity. Dayton’s Bluff has been named one of Minnesota’s top five impoverished neighborhoods. It’s no longer the food desert, but there is still a lot of food insecurity within our neighborhood.
MSR: What do you think needs to be done to help end food insecurity?
Carl: We need to continue. We need more sustainable grocery stores, which we’re trying to do, and more worker-owned cooperatives doing it. It’s not just about giving people food; it’s more about people having dependable support systems amid their most challenging times.
MSR: What is your vision/goals for your business? What does success look like for you?
Carl: I want our business to continue to be a worker cooperative. I want to see it in multiple cities and neighborhoods. And I want people to understand that we can create sustainable businesses that change the future.
MSR: What advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur?
Carl: Start. You can dream all day and have a bunch of different ideas. You only know if something is going to work once you start. And then you’ll only know what your idea is after you’ve done it for ten years. It’s a lot of work. There’s a lot of practicing that needs to be done when it comes to business.
MSR: Did you grow up in this neighborhood?
Carl: I didn’t. I’m a transplant. We moved here in 2016 from a small town in Ohio.
MSR: What would you like to add that has yet to be covered?
Carl: Storehouse Grocery and Coffee is a worker-owned cooperative creating sustainable environments for groceries and coffee.
The business is in the G.W. Carver Cultural Center for Innovation at 781 7th Street East, St. Paul, MN. The store’s phone number is 612-358-4004, and its website is www.storehousegrocers.com.
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