MUNCIE — Is there a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market in Muncie's future?
How about some of the newest supermarket concepts in the industry, including one from Whole Foods?
City officials are trying to attract new supermarkets — and sometimes new concepts — to Muncie and have been working with potential developers to increase the community's food-buying choices.
It's an effort to address Muncie's food deserts — areas that are under-served for fresh, nutritious food at reasonable prices. In an August story, The Star Press reported on the problem, particularly as it applied to the city's northeast quadrant. In that area, but especially east of Broadway along McGalliard Road, thousands of residents — many of them elderly and disabled, living in apartment complexes — haven't had easy access to a wide selection of groceries since a Marsh supermarket closed in 2013 and Kmart closed in 2014. The U.S.D.A. has declared much of Muncie's east side and downtown a food desert.
Mayor Dennis Tyler has acknowledged the problem and has been in contact with potential developers of supermarkets.
But a couple of obstacles stand in the way of developing new grocery stores in Muncie.
One of them is that one of the best possible locations for a new supermarket, the former Kmart, is in a floodway. That means any developer that wanted to build a supermarket in the under-served area would either have to make dramatic changes or pay expensive flood insurance.
The city's efforts to attract a supermarket continue, however.
Wal-Mart looking?
Muncie has always been a big supermarket town. From neighborhood grocery stores to the first Marsh supermarket, which opened in Muncie in 1931, the city has been dotted with supermarkets. The proliferation of supermarkets around the city has decreased in the past 20-plus years with the disappearance of the Ross and Wise chains and the closing of some Marsh stores and opening of others. Just Friday, Marsh held a grand re-opening of its store at McGalliard Road and Wheeling Avenue after nearly $1 million in remodeling. Wal-Mart and Meijer compete with Marsh and smaller stores for Muncie's grocery-shopping business.