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Look Inside Mount Airy’s New Super Budget-Friendly Grocery Store

Grocery Outlet — offering products discounted by 40 to 70 percent — is now open.


grocery outlet mount airy

Organic and locally sourced produce is available at the new Mount Airy Grocery Outlet. Photograph courtesy Chyrese Hollingsworth

Philadelphia has a brand-new supermarket option, and this one is Black-owned. On April 29th, Mount Airy welcomed the region’s fifth Grocery Outlet Budget Market — the first location of the chain to open within city limits.

The Grocery Outlet chain got its start in California in 1946, but over the last decade it’s expanded across the East Coast, now with more than 300 stores nationwide. The Mount Airy location is independently owned and operated by Aaron and Chyrese Hollingsworth. Aaron has more than 25 years of experience in grocery and retail spaces, while Chyrese is a nurse practitioner at the VA Hospital. The store offers a wide variety of products, including produce, meat, deli items, and dairy, as well as household needs and bath and body products — everything you’d typically find in a big-box grocery store.

grocery outlet mount airy

Owners and operators Aaron and Chyrese Hollingsworth. Photograph courtesy Chyrese Hollingsworth

grocery outlet mount airy

You’ll find lots of “Wow!” deals at Grocery Outlet. Photograph courtesy Chyrese Hollingsworth

One big difference between Grocery Outlet and most other stores? The prices. The retailer offers groceries and products at steep 40 to 70 percent discounts. These low prices are made possible by their sourcing of many “imperfect” items. These products may have been left over after a brand’s packaging update or they may have been bought up when too much of an item was produced to sell in traditional stores. Despite the pricing, the shop does not skimp on quality, featuring organic and locally sourced items. And because each owner/operator curates their own shops, you can know the product selection is geared towards needs of the neighborhood.

grocery outlet mount airy

The new Mount Airy Grocery Outlet is located at 25 W Hortter Street. Photograph courtesy Chyrese Hollingsworth

In opening, the Mount Airy location made 35 jobs available to local Philadelphians, and now through May 27th, Grocery Outlet will give customers a chance to win $1,000 in free groceries. The market is also committed to giving back to the community, and at its April 29th grand opening, it presented a $1,500 check to the Beckett Life Center, a community center located in North Philadelphia.

“I believe the Grocery Outlet will be a good fit for the community because there is a great need for a value channel retailer,” says Aaron Hollingsworth.

Grocery Outlet’s new location is located at 25 W Hortter Street in Mount Airy.


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