After about four months with shuttered doors, a grocery store in Newport News’ Brooks Crossing Shopping Center will once again be open for business beginning Tuesday, bringing an end to the food desert in the city’s Southeast Community.
The Piggly Wiggly won’t be in full swing until its grand opening June 27. Early Tuesday, the store will start its “soft opening” phase to iron out details and processes before going into full business.
The store, located at 3101 Jefferson Ave., is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.
Owner Bert Harrell said the store will be fully stocked and running close to normal during the soft opening, just on shorter hours.
The Piggly Wiggly will go in the building that once contained Jim’s Local Market, which operated for about two years. Jim’s was greeted with excitement in the city because it was ending a two-year food desert in the Southeast Community — the Piggly Wiggly is coming with similar excitement.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as a neighborhood that lacks easy access to fresh, healthy and affordable food. There are no other stores in the area that sell fresh produce.
“It’s good to be serving a need in the community,” Harrell said. Revitalization and redevelopment in the area are also a major focus of the city, and Harrell said he was glad for the store to be a part of that progress.
Mayor McKinley Price said at an April 25 City Council meeting that he was “delighted” to announce Piggly Wiggly was taking over the space.
Piggly Wiggly is a national chain with stores in 17 states, mostly in the southeast United States, according to the company’s website. In Virginia, the company has stores in Danville, Emporia and Norfolk.
Harrell and City officials have said the store brings brand recognition that they think will attract people.
The building containing Piggly Wiggly is owned by Brooks Crossing Grocery Store LLC, overseen by the Newport News Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Annual rent at the space will total $60,000 a year, $15,000 less than what it was for Jim’s, and the first six months will be rent-free.
Jim’s Local Market owner Jim Scanlon said previously that he was closing the store because it never made a profit. Even though it closed in January, Scanlon and the city had been looking for a new grocery store operator since the fall of 2017.
City staff previously told the Daily Press the city spoke with three grocers about the space and chose to make a deal with Piggly Wiggly.
