website<\/a>, SNAP and EBT will be accepted at the market, and board members plan to create a Food for All program and support alternative transportation.\u00a0<\/p>\nBreininger said the presence of other grocery stores was another important consideration. Since the South Side has two grocery stores \u2014 Ideal Food Basket and a CTown Supermarket \u2014 the co-op chose a location on the North Side, as the board didn\u2019t want to compete with those businesses.<\/p>\n
With a location secured and a lease signed, construction was supposed to begin a number of years ago. However, the COVID pandemic halted construction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even though no work could be done, Breininger said the co-op had to continue paying service contracts. But when construction did begin again, supply chain and demand issues drastically increased the price of some equipment, such as refrigerators, stoves and ventilation materials, he said.<\/p>\n
This increased cost, compounded by the time lost to halted construction, pushed back the possibility of opening the market, Breininger said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely challenging, the timing of when we took this project on and when we thought we were right at the finish line, and then the world shut down,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the world opened up again, everything cost a lot more than it did before then.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_0065.jpg\")
Domenic Breininger holds an image of the planned layout in the interior of the Bethlehem Co-op Market at 250 E. Broad Street on March 24. Equipment will soon be delivered and finishing touches completed before the store\u2019s late summer\/early fall opening. (Grace Roche\/B&W Staff)<\/p>\n
Breininger also said the cost to complete the store rose to $4 million post-pandemic, but some of the additional costs have been offset by increased efforts to recruit member-owners \u2014 individuals who invest $300 to join the organization, along with donations and re-negotiating contracts to find savings. He said there is also a fundraiser planned, with a goal of raising more than $1 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although the Housing and Urban Development grant provides $2.9 million, these funds are not immediately accessible. It\u2019s a reimbursement-based grant, meaning the co-op would be paid back for expenses already incurred.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Without having funds available up front, Breininger said it was difficult to complete large purchases for the market. To do so, he said, the co-op needed to take out short-term loans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the loans, Breininger said the co-op has paid deposits for equipment and expects pieces to be delivered by late July. Ensuring the arrival of this equipment was one of the last steps toward opening the store, and he said much of the remaining work in the space will be cosmetic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mertz said the market is also searching for a general manager to oversee day-to-day operations and hopes to find one before the store opens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would certainly be optimal to have our general manager in play and there for us when we open the store,\u201d he said. \u201cDo I think it\u2019s going to stop us from opening the doors if we don\u2019t have one? No, because the operations team we have hired are competent and doing a solid job.\u00a0 But it certainly would be smoother, and it would be another check box if we have our new general manager in place as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
As it prepares to welcome shoppers, the co-op board is also pursuing partnerships with local farms and businesses to stock its shelves.<\/p>\n
One of these businesses is Hippie Momma\u2019s Apothecary, owned by longtime Bethlehem resident Sarah King. Her products include soap, body sprays and lotions, and she uses natural ingredients to make and package her goods.\u00a0<\/p>\n
King said she quickly joined the co-op after encountering it at pop-up shops in the area. She\u2019s since stayed in touch with members of the group, and at one point, she suggested her products would sell well at the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
King\u2019s business also values local sourcing and uses natural ingredients, and she said she thought this aligned well with the co-op\u2019s goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy products are all as natural as they can be,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t use any plastic. I use aluminum, glass or wax paper bags, so, absolutely, I think Hippie Momma is going to fit right in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several board members agreed with King and extended a verbal agreement to stock her merchandise. She said while she\u2019s excited for the market to open, the delays have given her more time to prepare, especially since soap making is a time-consuming process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The delays have also added to King\u2019s anticipation for the market, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The market has not announced an official opening date, but Breininger and Mertz both said they estimate it will open in late summer or early fall this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s taken years of what were some hard times and stress and showing that, man, we did it, we really worked through this, and we made this happen,\u201d Breininger said. \u201cIt feels great. I\u2019m excited about what it will mean for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Situated on the ground floor of a Broad Street apartment building is a mostly empty storefront, dotted with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5122,153,155,154,1197,1515],"class_list":["post-5645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-12-minute-read","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-feature","tag-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5645","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=5645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}