Adrian Fontes first understood what he was contributing to the community soon after opening his grocery and convenience store in May 2012.
A “scroungy looking kid” rode his skateboard up to Bodega 420 — the shop on Roosevelt and Fifth streets that Fontes co-owns with wife Mona Fontes and John Sagasta — and picked out two potatoes and a yam from the back of the store. He handed Fontes a “crumpled up little dollar bill,” 50 cents for the yam and 25 cents for each potato, and left.
Fontes never saw the boy again, but the experience stuck with him. He wondered where else the boy might have gone for food if Bodega 420 had not been there.
In most of the Phoenix metropolitan area, getting groceries is not a challenge. But Bodega 420 sits on the edge of what the U.S. Department of Agriculture classifies as a “food desert,” an area with a high number of low-income residents and a low availability of affordable, healthy groceries.
The trip to the next closest grocery store — a Safeway on McDowell Road and Fifth Street — is 1.4 miles there and back from Bodega 420, adding about 30 minutes to a pedestrian’s trip.
Fontes guessed that without Bodega 420, the boy might have gone to a convenience store with fewer nutritious selections and paid even more for a snack. Instead, he was able to get healthy food, “something that his mom would give him,” Fontes said.
The USDA classifies all of downtown Phoenix south of Roosevelt Street as a food desert. According to the department’s Food Access Research Atlas, 45 percent of the households in this area have no vehicles and are more than a half mile from a supermarket.
Don Keuth, president of the Phoenix Community Alliance, said downtown Phoenix doesn’t have enough residents to attract a large grocery store. He said the area will become more attractive to businesses as downtown’s population grows, and that some large stores like Target are developing options for smaller stores in urban areas.
Keuth said two developments could increase the population enough to attract another grocery store downtown: the Roosevelt Point apartment complex, which will open in the fall, and the additional housing units going into CityScape.
Until other businesses come downtown, residents can get food at Bodega 420, the twice-weekly Phoenix Public Market, CVS, several Circle K locations and the Safeway on McDowell Road. The Phoenix Public Market had a full-time store open until May 2012, when it closed after months of financial difficulty.
Bodega 420 was originally meant to be “the bratty little stepbrother to the Phoenix Public Market,” Fontes said. He wanted his store to complement the public market, which carried healthy, local foods that were more expensive, by offering more affordable options.
Fontes said downtown would be fine with one or two more small shops like his, rather than a big-box grocer moving into the area.
Kevin Rille, president of the Evans Churchill Community Association in the northeast quarter of downtown, said the community would benefit from more small markets located within walking distance.
“It’s going to take supermarket operators to think differently,” Rille said. “It can’t just be a typical huge market.”
Small businesses have advantages over larger chains, Fontes said. For example, Bodega 420 cannot keep a large inventory, but it does make sure it carries the products its customers want by encouraging them to write suggestions on its “What You Want” board inside the shop. Bodega 420 now carries Dr. Bronner’s soap and Tasty Bites microwavable meals after requests from customers.
But Fontes said potential business owners are probably dissuaded from opening similar shops because of the heavy workload and low profit margins. A store like Bodega 420 is not a get-rich-quick scheme, Fontes said, adding that he doesn’t expect the store to start making profits until sometime around November, when it will have been open for 18 months.
“We’re subsidizing this pretty heavily now,” he said.
The hardest part of running Bodega 420 is putting in the hours. Fontes, an attorney by day, said his wife spends the most time running the shop. The owners employ approximately a dozen staffers, some of whom volunteer or work for store credit, to keep the business open from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.
Despite the hard work it requires, Fontes said Bodega 420 is more like a hobby than a job, likening his investment in it to purchasing a boat. Fontes said he sometimes plays his guitar on the front porch, which overlooks the heart of the Roosevelt Row arts district.
“It’s the best porch in Phoenix,” he said.
Contact the reporter at john.l.fitzpatrick@asu.edu
