The Metro: A grocer that answers to its neighbors. Now it needs them

For more than a decade, a group of Detroiters worked toward something the city was lacking: there were almost no Black-owned grocery stores. So they set out to build one — owned by the people it serves.

In 2024, the Detroit People’s Food Co-op opened on Woodward in the North End.

Two years later, it is asking for help. The co-op says it is bringing in close to $3 million a year. Before it opened, it projected about $80,000 a week — more than $4 million. 

This month it launched a campaign to recruit 500 new owners and asked shoppers to spend $10 more every time they come in. They named it Mframadan, a symbol from Ghana for a house built to withstand treacherous conditions.

Those conditions are real — food prices keep climbing and many of the people this store was built for are the ones with the least to spare. U.S. Census Bureau data shows 34% of Detroiters live in poverty.

The co-op’s thought was that Detroiters should own their food system, not just shop within it. Two years in, the question is whether that’s something people can afford to own.

Lanay Gilbert-Williams, president of the Detroit People’s Food Co-op and executive director of the Detroit Food Policy Council, joined Robyn Vincent to discuss what supporting a co-op means for a community, some of the store’s higher prices in comparison to chain grocers, and who is actually shopping there.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

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