The first major grocery store downtown in decades opens Tuesday – a Raley's company product, but very different from the chain's traditional outlets.

The store, called Market 5-ONE-5, is one-fifth the size of a typical supermarket. Owner Michael Teel described it at a Monday preview as a boutique neighborhood grocery with a focus on shoppers who want a smaller sampling of healthy local food.

The market sits in a brick-walled former industrial building on R Street near 10th Street, on a fast-changing corridor that Teel says is "ground zero for the regeneration of downtown."





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"ONE" is an acronym that references Organic, Nutrition and Education. The store name reflects Teel's May 15 birthday, as well as its opening date.

The store has a butcher and deli, precooked foods for take-home, and serves wine, beer, tea and kombucha on site. There's a 67-space parking lot and a seating area out front. It's a half block from the Fox & Goose Pub, and another block west of the Warehouse Artists Lofts.

Sacramento city officials say the grocery will play a role in the efforts to turn the downtown into a 24-hour community with 10,000 new residents in the coming years. New housing has been forming on the R Street Corridor, including the 142-unit Ice Blocks community six blocks away.





Teel said the store is managed separately from the rest of the Raley's chain, with separate vendors, many of them local farmers and customers who add to the store's focus on local products and simplicity.

Store general manager Levi Wingo said he expects downtown workers to drop in on their way home, and for central city residents to come by for a different shopping experience. Wingo said he hired a dietician to help curate the store's food selection, which is limited compared to typical Raley's markets.



