{"id":291087,"date":"2026-09-21T21:26:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T21:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/291087\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T21:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T21:26:22","slug":"bethlehem-co-op-market-sets-2026-opening-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/291087\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem Co-op Market sets 2026 opening date"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Bethlehem Co-op Market will officially open in December, following years of delays.<\/p>\n<p>In a news release, the market announced that it will officially open its doors Dec. 5 at its 250 E. Broad Street location.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReaching this milestone is the result of many years of commitment from so many people who believed in the idea of a community-owned grocery store in Bethlehem and helped bring it to life,\u201d said Co-op board Chair Todd Mertz in a statement. \u201cNow we get to welcome people into the store, fill it with activity, and begin doing what we\u2019ve worked toward for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bethlehem Co-op Market initiative began in 2011. After years of development and volunteer work, it announced its location in 2019 and, in 2021, received a $2.9 million federal grant that would allow it to cover the cost of opening.<\/p>\n<p>But three years after securing the funding, several obstacles got in the way, and forced the store to push back its expected opening several times.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcall.com\/2025\/10\/22\/when-will-the-bethlehem-co-op-market-open-pandemic-inflation-behind-delay-as-some-voice-concerns\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Co-op also faced criticism from some city activists and leaders<\/a>, who questioned why the opening was taking so long.<\/p>\n<p>A grocery co-op is a business model where anyone can buy a store \u201cmembership\u201d and have an ownership stake in the store. Although anyone can shop there, not just members, a $300 one-time co-op membership grants discounts, voting rights on the store\u2019s offerings, and equity if and when the store is profitable.<\/p>\n<p>In advance of the official opening date, the Co-op\u00a0 will hold a series of \u201cpreview markets\u201d where visitors can shop a limited selection of local vendors and tour the store\u2019s space.<\/p>\n<p>Preview markets will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on Oct. 1, 15, 29 and Nov. 12, and from 9 a.m. to noon every Saturday from Oct. 3-Nov. 14, according to a news release.<\/p>\n<p>The preview markets will raise money for the co-op\u2019s official opening.<\/p>\n<p>Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bethlehem Co-op Market will officially open in December, following years of delays. In a news release, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,1391,60,433,182,139,434,28,436,432],"class_list":["post-291087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-area","tag-business","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-northampton-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-retail","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}