SARASOTA, Fla. — There is disappointing news for folks in St. Pete who had hoped that a Detwiler's Farm Market would open at Tangerine Plaza.
The company has confirmed that the preliminary talks between the Sarasota-based grocery store and Tangerine Plaza developers have not panned out. The owner of the family-run business says right now, the company is focused on securing its distribution infrastructure for its six stores.
"We don't have anything. We really told the people in southern St. Pete that we're going to have to walk right now. We sort of came home and we said we're not ready yet to go across the bridge," Henry Detwiler Sr, the owner of Detwiler's Farm Market, said.
The excitement about the potential for a store branch in St. Pete was timely because Detwiler's is in the middle of an expansion plan that includes a new distribution center. It's all part of an effort to bring more grocery store options to places considered food deserts.
Last Christmas, a Detwiler's Farm Market which opened in West Bradenton was a welcome development for neighbors with its promise of fresh produce at lower prices.
However, not far away in East Bradenton, neighbors there too are clamoring for quality grocery store options.
"The fruits and the vegetables, it's better. I mean, if you just use Walmart as an example, if you look at their produce versus here, it's night and day honestly," Bradenton resident Erin Porter said.
Affordable grocery options are limited for folks like Porter who said she has to drive more than 6 miles from her end of East Bradenton to the newest Detwiler's Farm Market for the quality and better shopping experience.
"The people in East Bradenton, they have the same dollars as people in West Bradenton or Lakewood Ranch or anywhere else so why should they have to come further out? That has always been the question for me because it's like every time I come out to the store I'm like wouldn't it be nice if I could walk to a store versus having to drive," Porter said.
Unlike West Bradenton which has nearly a dozen grocery chains within a three-mile radius, many parts of Manatee and Sarasota can't boast of more than one major grocery chain.
"If you're starting a business and you're relying on the community to keep your business afloat like a grocery store, then you should be more civic-minded and going out and putting stores in places that are not. Maybe you're going to make less profit there maybe there's other stuff," Silverio Ortiz, a West Bradenton neighbor, said.
Many are looking to family-owned Detwiler's to fill in the gap with their expansion plans after recently breaking ground on a 133,000-square-foot distribution center in Palmetto.
"We are at a sort of stalemate to grow until we have more distribution. I think now we're in a total of 40 or 50,000 feet in 2 or 3 different places. I think we have a warehouse in Miami that helps and we have to do some trucking," Detwiler said.
As the company fine-tunes its distribution center to serve its six stores, the current expansion plans will not include St. Pete's Tangerine Plaza, for now.
"We are always looking. I think why we walked from that deal as it was because they wanted to make it more of a community thing and have some buildings and that's what they need," he said.
"I would say that St. Pete is actually very important for us to be there. We're always looking for a good store, but we have nothing right now on the books. We want to come over there, but I see St. Pete in years 2028, and 2027. But it might be wrong, and it might be sooner but I really don't see it happening in the next couple of years," Detwiler said.
For the neighbors shopping at the West Bradenton store, they are hoping any future plans in the works would take into consideration communities that are facing challenges accessing grocery stores in their neighborhoods.
"Somebody needs to put a business in the community because people are going to be patrons. There's no question about if that's going to happen but who's going to be that one person to do it," Porter said.
"I know that Detwiler's works with a lot of local communities and I like that and they've got excellent produce, and I think that more people need to do that instead of just worrying about their bottom line," Ortiz said.
Detwiler hopes to finish the distribution center by the end of this year or early next year.