Grocery-anchored Retail

"Within retail, we remain highly selective and prefer necessity-based, grocery-anchored shopping centers"

- Goldman Sachs Asset Management

For real estate investors seeking stable returns, grocery-anchored shopping centers have long been darlings. The thinking is these places are unavoidable in our daily routines no matter what’s happening in the economy. “People gotta eat”, proponents say.

Chef John Currence agrees. He opened the City Grocery in 1992, and he’s been an anchor to the Oxford, Mississippi square ever since.

It’s not a supermarket, but Chef Currence found what the venture capitalists call product-market fit, feeding people that like to eat, and earning the James Beard Award for Best Chef, South.

He also learned that people gotta drink:

There’s no carts and City Grocery’s selection isn’t as broad as a supermarket, but the food is better and it’s a helluva good time.

But Chef Currence wasn’t the first City Grocery proprietor - the original store opened in the 1920s, owned by Levi “Bud” Fudge (second from right), and his son, Earl Fudge (right), a WWI veteran.

And for over 100 years, City Grocery has brought people to the Oxford city square. It’s a magical place:

With shops any modern grocery-anchored property would love to have.

Even second floor retail works here.

City Grocery has been around a long time.

People gotta eat, yes, but a big part of City Grocery’s longevity is its location within a timeless place. Car parking takes a back seat here, and the buildings frame the pedestrian activity, compressing it in a way that manufactures bustle:

A modern grocery-anchored property is designed for cars, with the shops lined up like awkward roommates facing an ocean of asphalt.

I’m not sure about the modern strip center, but if I had to bet, 100 years from now the Oxford City Square will still be there, the center of the community.

Chef Currence won’t be there, so go experience his genius now.

And order the shrimp & grits at City Grocery. Even the good folks at Goldman Sachs would agree: it’s a necessity.

If you’re in the business of mixed-use development, check out:

Automatic

a series of epic live events where developers meet the retailers, restaurateurs, and innovators who make properties more valuable.