CIE'S 2016 pop-Up Grocery Sample Business Plan

Background

The South King County, Washington area is an extremely diverse area in terms of cultures, income and economic backgrounds, languages, and feelings of community belonging. South of the region’s major city, Seattle, South King County attracts individuals and families who are interested in living outside of a metropolitan area either due to affordability or personal priorities. As a result, South King County has a higher than average number of families living within incomes that are below a living wage. Added to this issue is that most of the county’s “food deserts” are concentrated in the neighborhoods and cities of South King County, and there are twice as many fast food restaurants and convenience stores as the number of supermarkets, small grocery stores, and produce vendors combined. This makes purchasing healthy, local food difficult.

The Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship (CIE) was funded in 2015 by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) to create a feasibility plan, market assessment, and business plan for the Green Cart Cooperative, a social enterprise cooperative of independent mobile produce cart operators bringing EBT/SNAP eligible local produce into LFPP priority census tracts in SeaTac, Tukwila and South Seattle.

Feasibility Study

During this planning project, we conducted deep community engagement, including listening sessions, surveys, interviews and review of work that has already been accomplished around the issues of food security and economic development. As a result of these activities, the community helped us identify various business model concepts and create a business plan around the most feasible model: Pop-Up Grocery, a mobile grocery store that serves food desert areas of South King County.

The problems:

  • Food deserts exist in South King County resulting in health disparities
  • Entrepreneurial opportunities are needed in South King County to reduce economic inequity

  • Healthy, local, sustainable food grown by regional farmers has limited markets in South King County neighborhoods

  • The solution: Pop-Up Grocers

Read the Sample Business Plan

We are pleased to make our business plan available for download here for free. Please do not republish, in part or in full, free or paid, without our permission. 

Financial projection templates are available upon request.