Oakland’s Farmacy Marketplace Is Open For Business
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The Farmacy Marketplace is located in Oakland at the corner of Hwy. 51 and Hickory Street.
OAKLAND – The dream is now a reality in Oakland. The Farmacy Marketplace, a neighborhood-style grocery market at the corner of Highway 51 and Hickory Street, has opened its doors and a ribbon-cutting is set for 1:15 p.m. on Saturday, May 17 to officially welcome the market to town. After being without a grocery store for decades, the excitement of people in the area is contagious.
“The last time I remember being in a grocery store in Oakland, I was a teenager,” said Stephanie Patterson. “Now, at 46 years old, I can’t help but reflect on how the community has been waiting for a grocery store for so long. The buzz and enthusiasm surrounding the construction of the new store have truly brought excitement to the area.”
Marquitrice Mangham founded Farmacy Marketplace.
Patterson serves on the Town Board and helped recruit the grocery store. She believing having access to fresh food and vegetables right in our neighborhood is a significant boost, especially for seniors, and those who lack transportation.
“It reduces travel time and enhances convenience for everyone. The additional tax revenue generated can support our town in several crucial ways—improving road maintenance and making necessary repairs to our water and sewer systems, as well as aiding our fire and police departments with their operational costs,” Patterson added.
Farmacy Marketplace founder Marquitrice Mangham reports the Oakland store is the first new story and will be the blueprint for other Farmacy Marketplaces that may follow.
“The idea is to create a happy and convenient shopping experience for residents and visiting shoppers. I plan a clean, welcoming environment that residents can be happy to share with visitors. I also want the store to set the standard for other businesses that follow and inspire people inside and outside the community to shop and invest in Oakland,” Mangham noted.
Mangham said hot food will be available very soon and that her team is working to offer Farmacy Marketplace shopping through Instacart with SNAP online payment options.
The first 50 shoppers who take a selfie making a purchase following the ribbon cutting and tags Oakland Farmacy Marketplace on social media will receive a Farmacy Marketplace gift card.
A New Model For Food Access
Mangham opened the first small market in her hometown of Webb in October, 2022, to bring much-needed relief to a community that had become a food desert. According to an article on Blavity in June, 2024, Mangham said she became increasingly worried about her hometown of Webb, as people continued to face difficulties due to the lack of grocery stores and shortage of healthy food choices.
Many of the residents, according to a report from Capital B News, were traveling more than 20 miles to find the closest grocery store. Mangham, who left Webb in the 1990s, came back to her hometown in 2016 when she inherited her family’s farm. In 2022, Mangham opened her neighborhood grocery store, Farmacy Marketplace.
Mangham is a military veteran, planning expert, non-profit executive, and entrepreneur. It is with this background that she has looked at the struggles of small towns through a unique lens. Using her non-profit, In Her Shoes (IHS), she has created a new model for food access and local farming. Oakland’s Farmacy Marketplace is not a traditional for-profit grocery store; but rather a non-profit enterprise. In addition to the neighborhood marketplaces, Mangham offers a mobile produce truck to area towns to encourage families to buy fresh foods. As she does at Webb, her Oakland store will offer the opportunity for area farmers to sell their crops.
Oakland connected with Mangham in December, 2022, when Patterson and Linda Ross Aldy of the Oakland Area Chamber met with Mangham at her Webb market. The Chamber officials were impressed and began recruiting Mangham to set up a store in Oakland.
“Oakland was chosen as the next location for Farmacy Marketplace largely because of the efforts of members of the community that were inspired by our creation of Farmacy Marketplace in Webb and very proactively worked to help make the store come to fruition,” Mangham said. “From outreach, to site selection and financial investment, members of the local Chamber diligently and consistently worked with IHS. Oakland was also chosen because IHS staff conducted an economic feasibility analysis and found that the town’s location, demographics and other characteristics showed it is capable of sustaining a neighborhood scale grocery store.”
Two Year Process
“We were determined to bring Farmacy Marketplace to Oakland,” said Aldy, who is a founding member of the Chamber and continues to work in a community development role for the town and Chamber. “We shared an economic development fact sheet that we had developed on demographics in the town and surrounding area; we worked to find a good location; we helped with negotiations when we were needed; we helped and will continue to help with PR and getting the word out; and we helped with a small financial investment. I think most of all we stayed in touch. It was not an overnight process; it was a two-year process. Since we started the Chamber, we have held annual meetings with the community to determine what they identified as the most important elements to growing the area. On every single wish list, a grocery was at or near the top. It is so exciting that we have met that need for the residents of the area,” Aldy added.
Aldy notes that research shows that bringing a grocery store to a small town can significantly benefit future development.
Research shows that bringing a grocery store to a small town can significantly benefit future development.
“The Center for Rural Affairs points out that a grocery store stimulates economic growth, improves community well-being, and attracts new residents. It creates jobs, generates tax revenue, and has a multiplier effect. It is much more than just a place to buy groceries. It is an important part of a community’s infrastructure, according to the Center for Rural Affairs, that can drive future growth,” Aldy explained.
Alan Barefield, retired MSU professor, who specialized in rural economics, rural development, and economic development backs up the research.
“A small-town grocery store is both a social and an economic engine in the community. It not only brings people together on a fairly regular basis, but it also provides a provides a necessary service to residents and visitors that promotes a sense of community. These grocery stores are also an economic engine in the community – not only providing sales and value added to the local economy, but also supports local government through local sales taxes and special levies. The local grocery store is a boon to the community and residents should realize its benefits and should support and patronize this type of business. The payback to the community is substantial,” he said.
Mayor James Riley Swearengen, who is retiring after more than 40 years of service, is pleased that the store is open for business. “We feel so fortunate to have Farmacy Marketplace locate in Oakland. It is truly a blessing for our community and we encourage everyone to support this by doing as much of your shopping here as you possibly can.
“As a retiring mayor, my goal for the entire 40 plus years that I served is that I and those working with me would leave things better and hopefully we have accomplished that goal. Opening this grocery store, along with some other things that are in the works, is definitely a positive for Oakland and sets us up for more great things to come,” he said.
Neighborhood Market
The Oakland Farmacy Marketplace carries a large selection of everyday grocery needs. Mangham said that the neighborhood market concept may not carry as many brands as large supermarkets, but it will have fresh locally grown vegetables along with frozen foods, fresh and frozen meats, cooking, baking and breakfast aisles along with fresh cut deli meats. She said that customers should let her know if there is an item they want the store to carry and she will do her best to get it.
Area farmers can contact IHS to become suppliers to get produce in the stores and on the mobile unit. There are requirements that retailers must follow to carry local produce. The non-profit has a Farm Business Enhancement Program which is designed to provide local growers the direct assistance they need to have their products on the shelves at Farmacy Marketplace. Suppliers should check out the IHS website at https//:inhershoesinc.org for specifics.
Mangham is about a lot more than grocery stores. “I’m not so passionate about food access as I am about helping others. I wear a lot of hats. I’m a God-fearing woman, a single mother of two daughters, a public servant, a professional planner and project manager, an Army veteran, a farmer, an advocate, and the oldest of two kids. The saying is that we are the product of our environment, and I believe all of these influenced my desire to help fill the needs of local communities.
“As a young dusty girl growing up on a farm on Sharkey Road, I am very familiar with communities like Oakland. As I was blessed to move away, go to the Army and start my professional career, every experience, every lesson I learned empowered me with what I need to give back to my community in the way I feel is most impactful,” she said.
Her non-profit also focuses on housing and small business support. Mangham said that she and the IHS Board share a goal to be a positive part of any community they are a part of. That support goes beyond grocery store walls and includes local activities and events.
The next project for Mangham and the IHS Board is to open a poultry processing facility during 2025 to give small farmers a place to process poultry.
