Local groceries, delivered: Zadie’s Market offers same-day grocery delivery to Asheville
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ASHEVILLE – A local independent grocery store is taking on the big guys.
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Though it does not yet offer a brick-and-mortar shopping space, Zadie’s Market now provides same-day delivery service to the Asheville area.
The now-virtual grocery store, which will gain a storefront at the Old Marshall Jail as early as spring, runs hundreds of deliveries Monday-Saturday, typically between 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Plans are for more brick-and-mortar locations, including in Asheville.
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Zadie’s customers have to order by 7:30 a.m. to get same-day service from an inventory that includes local produce and pantry products, local and regionally raised meats and household supplies.
Shoppers can even find locally made goods in the latter category, including hand sanitizer.
One of the store’s chief goals is to support small farmers, particularly those in Western North Carolina, said Emily Copus, who co-owns the store with her husband Josh Copus and also owns Carolina Flowers and the associated flower farm.
When you shop with big billion dollar companies like Amazon, she said, that means your money is going to corporate conglomerates instead of local farms.
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“We’re trying to keep that here instead and in the pockets of our farmers,” Copus said, adding that Zadie’s is knowingly and willingly taking on massive corporate entities with its model.
It’s unsurprising then that the store has a cult following, including some of the most passionate of the farmers market crowd. “It’s a very close community,” Copus said.
Zadie’s serves hundreds of dedicated customers weekly, though there’s no subscription, membership or commitment required to order. Business has been steady, Copus said, and that’s a side effect of the times in which we live.
“We’re lucky in that there’s never been a better time to launch a model like this,” she said. “I think the hardest part is that the competition is so out of our league, as far as where we’re trying to convert people from.”
Zadie’s Market has eight free delivery zones in the Asheville regional area, including central parts of downtown Asheville, North Asheville, West Asheville, Woodfin, Weaverville, Marshall and Mars Hill.
The market can also fulfill free curbside pickup orders with at least an hour’s notice at Carolina Flowers Mercantile, 62 S. Main St., in Marshall.
Once Zadie’s brick and mortar location opens inside downtown Marshall’s historic former jail, it will expand options for same-day delivery.
As a farmer, Copus said she understands the importance of providing affordable outlets through which local growers and makers can get their wares to the public.
“And we’re really proud of how we connect the consumer with farmers,” she said. “When they buy local produce from us, they know which farm it came from and, a lot of the time, the name of the farmer — there’s a lot of clarity in what you’re buying.”
Learn more at www.ZadiesMarket.com.
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Mackensy Lunsford has lived in Asheville for more than 20 years, and has been a staff writer for the Asheville Citizen Times since 2012. Lunsford is a former professional line cook and one-time restaurant owner.
Reach me: mlunsford@citizentimes.com.
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This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Local groceries, delivered: Zadie’s Market offers same-day grocery delivery to Asheville