A Medical Device Maker Is Bringing A Grocery To Store To Neighborhood

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After big-box grocery chains left the Arlington Woods neighborhood in Indianapolis, residents were traveling at least five miles to get groceries. Medical device manufacturer COOK Medical is building a plant in the community and, after listening to residents, decided to add a grocery store to its plans. Luis Alvarez/Getty Images hide caption

After big-box grocery chains left the Arlington Woods neighborhood in Indianapolis, residents were traveling at least five miles to get groceries. Medical device manufacturer COOK Medical is building a plant in the community and, after listening to residents, decided to add a grocery store to its plans.

Arlington Woods, a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Indianapolis, has seen big-box grocery chains close one after another over the past few years. The area is a food desert with no full-size grocery store within a 4-mile radius.

"When you need a gallon of milk you've got to travel five miles," says Terry Coleman, who has been living in the neighborhood for more than 34 years.

Now, medical device manufacturer COOK Medical is locating a new plant to the underserved neighborhood, and the company is building a new grocery right next to the plant. Coleman and other area residents are excited.

"We only about maybe five minutes from there," Coleman says. "So it's really going to enhance the area. That store is going to be a part of our community."

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Based in Bloomington, Ind., the multi-billion-dollar family-owned manufacturer will invest nearly $2.5 million to build Indy Fresh Market, the new 15,000-square-foot grocery store, and local organizations such as IMPACT Central Indiana, a multi-member limited liability company, will provide capital and inventory.

Pete Yonkman, president of COOK Medical, says it was never part of the business plan to have a grocery store, but they heard from so many people that food access was a problem.

"They had five grocery stores leave in the last five years and so you have 100,000 people with no access to food," Yonkman says.

Once construction is complete, COOK Medical will turn over the store's operations and ownership to Michael McFarland and Marckus Williams, two young local entrepreneurs who live in the neighborhood. The two men are in their 30s and are childhood friends. They will manage the store through a rent-to-own model and expect that within a few years they will have 100% ownership of the store.

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Marckus Williams (left) and Michael McFarland grew up in Indianapolis and have lived around the Arlington Woods area for years. They think the new grocery store will be a great help for many as they have seen family members and neighbors struggle to access fresh food. Farah Yousry /WFYI hide caption

Marckus Williams (left) and Michael McFarland grew up in Indianapolis and have lived around the Arlington Woods area for years. They think the new grocery store will be a great help for many as they have seen family members and neighbors struggle to access fresh food.

"So our projected sales, we should be able to pay it off in two to four years," McFarland says. "So that's not bad to own your own grocery store."