Former Trader Joe's President Opens Nonprofit Grocery Store In Dorchester
BOSTON (CBS) - You won't believe the prices at a new grocery store in Dorchester.
Daily Table opened Friday, and it is the brainchild of the man who used to run Trader Joe's. The goal is to provide affordable, wholesome food to people who need it most, and you might be surprised to see how they do it.
Shoppers appeared to be impressed with the new store on Washington Street.
"Carrot ginger soup, $1.29. Do you see how big this is? This is like 3 servings for me," says Latoya Bush, happily holding up a container of fresh soup.
And that's not the only bargain. How about bananas at 29 cents a pound, or two bags of pasta for a buck and a dozen eggs for 99 cents.
"I have a whole bag of stuff here. I think I paid $6 for it," says Charlie Vlahakis, shopping in the grocery
"The purpose of Daily Table is not your typical grocer," says Doug Rauch, the former president of Trader Joe's.
Rauch is on a mission.
"We're here specifically to try and bring a healthier outcome to a community," he says.
To do that the Daily Table works as a nonprofit, selling healthy food at low, low prices, with food coming from a variety of sources.
"We go out and recover and get food that would be excess, wholesome food from Boston Produce Market in Chelsea. We also then have some special buying arrangements where we end up buying product at deeply discounted prices," says Rauch. That means overstocks, packaged food near its' sell-by date and produce that's ripe, right now.
In the future, they may also stock products beyond their sell-by date.
"The sell by date doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad," says Marilyn Forman who was shopping in the store.
The kitchen also turns out healthy, prepared food as an alternative to fast food.
"Empty calories are cheap and getting nutrious food is expensive. So we need to turn that if we're going to have better health outcomes," says Rauch.
To shop at the store, you need to give them your zip code and phone number so they can track where their customers come from to make sure less well-to-do communities are served. They're also looking for two more locations in Boston.