Business & Tech

Group Aims to Open Grocery Downtown

Bethlehem Grocery Co-Op will meet for the first time tonight.

Historic Downtown Bethlehem has options to please shoppers with all sorts of tastes and interests.

Need some new running shoes? There’s . Want that new John Grisham bestseller? The , of course. Need a gift for mom?  Some fine Belleek china from is always nice.

Hungry? From to the to , there is no shortage of choice by cuisine style or price.

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But one thing Downtown Bethlehem lacks is a grocery store to serve the people who live in center city. But of late, a movement to change all that is coalescing on at least one blog and on Facebook.

Tonight, the Bethlehem Grocery Co-Op will hold its first meeting, starting at 7 p.m. in the .

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The idea, as summed up by Jaime Karpovich, who authors the popular Save the Kales blog, would be to launch a member-owned store that focuses on selling local, organic and environmentally friendly products at affordable prices.

The organization and store would run as a non-profit and ideally have a community room for classes and discussion groups. Members would own shares of the store and get to vote on policies, as well as get discounts on purchases, Karpovich wrote.

Karpovich, a writer and nutritionist, wrote that she has been working with local environmental activist Cathy Frankenburg on developing the idea. The project has rapidly picked up steam on Facebook, where the Bethlehem Co-Op Grocery Page has 586 members.

One recent discussion on Facebook talked about potential sites for the store, including the long-vacant Jack Jones Buick auto dealership building at W. Broad Street and Third Avenue.


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