“You know, our battle has only just begun,” said a Goodwill administrator. “But we are in it to win it, and I don’t have any doubt that we will.”
Market on Melrose, a new Northwest Roanoke grocery store run by Goodwill Industries of the Valleys, celebrated its first anniversary this November, marking a notable milestone for a neighborhood long ignored by major grocers.
The store isn’t just new to Northwest residents; it’s new to Goodwill, too. While the nonprofit is no stranger to retail, Market on Melrose is its first grocery store — a leap into one of the most unforgiving sectors of commerce. With rising food costs, razor-thin profit margins and instability in federal food assistance programs, independent and nonprofit-run grocers often fail to survive more than a few years.
Goodwill Chief Operations Officer Mindy Boyd said the organization is facing those industry hurdles head-on. In its first year, the market operated at roughly a $1 million deficit, she said, and Goodwill does not expect the store to be profitable for at least three years…