Discount grocer brings bargains to Mattapan
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The produce section at the new Daily Table in Mattapan. Photo: Mike Deehan/Axios
A grocery store chain dedicated to getting affordable food to underprivileged communities is expanding to a fourth location. Daily Table's new outpost in Mattapan Square opened Thursday.
Why it matters: Food prices are going up, making it harder to find fresh, healthy alternatives to cheap fast food and snacks.
Daily Table redirects products that would become food waste into affordable groceries.
- More than a million tons of food go to waste each year in Massachusetts, according to Harvard’s Food Law and Policy Clinic.
Background: Former Trader Joe's president Doug Rauch founded the Daily Table chain and opened its first store in Dorchester in 2015.
- The store works with suppliers that donate or discount surplus food or food close to its "best by" date.
- The model lets Daily Table bring an ever-changing assortment of produce and proteins to market at prices usually lower than the big grocery chains.
Rauch's innovative approach to the grocery business and food waste has even been the subject of a Harvard Business School research paper.
Daily Table offers a 50% off discount for customers using SNAP benefits on fruit and vegetables.
- SNAP customers can also order online and get free delivery in a two-mile radius of the store.
The new store is a ground-floor tenant of the Loop at Mattapan Station at 474 River St. on what was until recently an MBTA-owned parking lot for the adjacent Mattapan trolley station.
- The mixed-use development by nonprofits Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation and Preservation of Affordable Housing brought 135 affordable rental apartments and 10,000 square feet of commercial space to an area close to the Mattapan trolley, which connects to the Red Line.
Details: The store is open from 9am to 8pm Monday through Saturday and 11am to 7pm Sundays.
- Grand opening events for the new Mattapan store are set for 3:30pm April 6, 3:30pm April 7 and 11am April 8.
Deehan's thought bubble: The Daily Table locations in Nubian Square and Washington Street in Dorchester have been perfect for narrowing down ingredient options and avoiding the overwhelming selection at the big grocers.
- If Daily Table has a great deal on, say, okra, it looks like we're having okra tonight.