4 replies to this topic

[orulz]

Have any of you heard about this project? Sounds fascinating. Located in a light industrial building on South French Broad between Patton and Hilliard, it will house an Amazing Savings grocery store as well as an indoor market where up to 160 vendors can rent space for a pretty low price ($15-$40 per day.) It will be open Friday-Sunday. Sounds like a downtown flea market, pretty much.

Amazing Savings is an Asheville-based store with about 7 branches around WNC and upstate SC. I've never been but it sounds interesting.

[hauntedheadnc]

With the loss of the Grove Corner Market, the Amazing Savings certainly ought to fill a niche, and it's within walking distance of a fairly extensive residential area spanning from the south side of Patton all the way down into the River District.  As for affordable artist stalls... we are certainly in need of those.  

This sounds like one of those projects that the city desperately needs but which no one realized it needed until the idea fairy alighted on someone else's head.  The more I think about it, the more perfect it seems for the city.  I wish them every success!  I only wish the building they've chosen was more pedestrian friendly.  It's accessible by sidewalk, but it's not very accommodating to the street.

[orulz]

This does seem like a great idea. BTW renting a stall at Smiley's down in Fletcher costs just about the same. That place gets pretty crowded; if the size of the parking lot at Smiley's is any indication, parking might seriously be an issue, but that's a great issue to have. Good thing Asheville has zero minimum parking requirements in the CBD.

I agree it would be nicer if it opened out to the sidewalk. Something like Charleston's old market. The one in Asheville is just a 1 story building so I can't imagine it would be too hard to cut some holes in the side of the building facing S French Broad. Or maybe it will be so popular that it will only stay in that building for a couple years before moving on to a bigger/better location.

[thecowgoesmoo]

Someone told me about this today. Seems nice but parking is minimal to non existent. From what I saw parking was on the street only. It's needed in town though, AS is a pretty cool store. Lots of similar recovery grocers in the Shelby area, this is a (somewhat) new concept for Asheville.

[Lootles]

thecowgoesmoo, on 16 October 2009 - 01:19 PM, said:

Someone told me about this today. Seems nice but parking is minimal to non existent. From what I saw parking was on the street only. It's needed in town though, AS is a pretty cool store. Lots of similar recovery grocers in the Shelby area, this is a (somewhat) new concept for Asheville.

The small chain, Grocery Outlet, originated and has been in the Asheville area for years.  Amazing Savings has been around for a while, too.  This will be their third location in the Asheville area.

Edited by Lootles, 24 October 2009 - 07:08 AM.