Produce at a grocery store Credit: File: Alice Levitt

Winooski may be known as Burlington’s Brooklyn, but it’s also a confirmed food desert. Both those reasons drew Michael Hughes to choose the city as the home of his third Commodities Natural Market. The new store will open this summer in a 3,300-square-foot space in Keen’s Crossing.

“There’s nothing there. That was really the main driver for me,” says Hughes of Winooski. The compact burg’s nearest grocery store is the Shaw’s up the hill in Colchester, about 20 minutes by foot from downtown. Hughes says that part of Winooski’s attraction for him is its similarity to the rough-and-tumble East Village of 1993, the site of his first store. He and his wife, Audra, opened a second Commodities this year in their new home of Stowe.

The space will need plenty of work to become a market; Hughes is working on floor plans that will take shape over what is now nothing but dirt. Because of the larger square footage in Winooski, he’s planning “some cool surprises that aren’t in New York or Stowe,” he teases.

Because, as Hughes puts it, “there’s not more diversity anywhere in Vermont,” the Winooski store will have an international edge. Shoppers can also expect to find staples typical of the small Commodities chain, including organic and local produce and well-stocked bulk bins. Coffee and prepared food will help make Onion City living more convenient.

“Those folks deserve something other than nothing,” Hughes says of Winooski residents. Soon, they’ll have far more.

The original print version of this article was headlined “Oasis in the Desert”

Related Stories

This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2015.

Got something to say?

Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!

AAN award-winning food writer Alice Levitt is a fan of the exotic, the excellent and automats. She wrote for Seven Days 2007-2015.

11 replies on “Commodities Brings a Market to Winooski”

  8. This is great news! I live across the street in the Cascades and this is a dream come true. There is a large concentration of people in our area and I am sure it will be a success.

  10. Food desert??? That’s terribly misleading and a poorly chosen metaphor. Winooski has several excellent markets within a few blocks of the traffic circle as well as the Happy Belly Deli and Store right downtown. And, the Onion City is by no means desert when it comes to restaurant food. In fact, it’s an increasingly popular destination for a wonderful variety of dining experiences.

  11. come to the New North End, all we have is Hannafords, and well, what can I say, its ok at best, just ok, when I walk into Shaw/’s or the Coop downtown i just wonder why the NNE is ignored so much, we have a LOT of people here folks

Comments are closed.