KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Community Groceries, at the corner of Armour Boulevard and Troost Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, opened in December to provide affordable and healthy foods to an underserved area, and after five months of feedback, the store is adjusting its products to meet the community's wants and needs.
“We are listening and we are adjusting accordingly," said co-founder Kourtney Lee. "We are bringing in more of the things they ask for and not other things that they don’t ask for.”
Lee said half of the community wants natural and organic products, while the other half "didn't care," so the store is trying to offer a "mixture of both."
One product has found success at Community Groceries, and it was made by the community and for the community.
Kansas Citian Breanna Barr sells her fruit-infused water, Butterflyyybee, at Community Groceries.
“I have been here in the community grocery store for almost a month and sales has been awesome," she said.
Barr came up with the idea during the COVID-19 pandemic when she started doing yoga and other forms of exercise.
“So it started, me and myself, working on just myself and my health," she said.
At the time, Barr was working at Panera Bread, and was surrounded by fruit-infused products.
“So the colors of the fruit, I basically started to educate myself on those," she said.
And now, Barr's product has become so successful, she's selling it at different stores and looking to hire employees.
Its Barr's success that Lee is looking to when trying to accommodate what his customers want by offering more local vendors.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to get all the vendors out here and this will be the permanent location where they can always display their product," Lee said.
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