Two major new players will enter the local grocery store market in the next six months: A 196,000 square-foot Meijer in Acme and a 26,000 square-foot Lucky’s Market in Traverse City. The stores will challenge existing local market holds, including Tom’s Food Market’s monopoly over the east side of town and Oryana Natural Foods Market’s leadership in the organic and natural foods scene. So how are those companies preparing for the new competition?

Oryana General Manager Steve Nance says the co-op has been “watching and waiting” for over a decade for a new competitor. “Grocery on the whole is pretty stagnant, but on the organic and natural side, it’s a 14 percent growth rate,” Nance says. “What we’re seeing is that in a lot of areas with co-ops, those have been the generator of the market…and then there (follows) a proliferation of Whole Foods or smaller stores like Lucky’s.”

Nance says Lucky’s plays to many of the same strengths championed by co-ops: the Colorado-based chain offers large produce and bulk sections, highlights organic and local product offerings and is actively involved in the community. Lucky’s spokeswoman Krista Torvik – who says the Traverse City store will open in the first quarter of 2016 in the former Horizon Outlet Center – confirms those focus areas. She says the company will distribute “impact grants to local nonprofit organizations who we are very excited to support” as part of its opening week celebration.

“Lucky’s Market is all about providing good, nutritious, delicious food to everyone, and making more options more affordable to everyone,” Torvik tells The Ticker. “So we’re excited to be in Traverse City.”

Pricing can be a sensitive area for organic shoppers – a pressure point Lucky’s is likely to squeeze when it enters the market. Nance notes Oryana has been actively “working on pricing” and is in the process of recontracting with several vendors to create better deals for customers. The store is also “constantly paying attention to the shopper experience,” says Nance, through projects like the recent remodeling and expansion of the kitchen and café areas.

“We’re also a locally-owned cooperative with 6,900 members, which makes us different as well,” says Nance. “The members own the place, and that tends to make them loyal. But we can’t be smug. This competitor will be tough.”

The grocery shake-up on the east side of town could contain a silver lining for Oryana: the co-op is planning to open a second store in Acme in fall 2016. “Once Meijer opens there, it could have the effect of keeping people from coming to the west side (to shop),” Nance says. “So we can redeploy resources to the Acme side that could pick up sales we might lose here (in Traverse City) to Lucky’s. The new store…is a strategy that keeps us growing in the face of competition.”

Though representatives from Meijer did not respond to multiple requests for comment, sources familiar with the development say the Acme store will likely open in November. While both Meijer and Oryana are set to challenge Tom’s Food Market’s long-time exclusivity on the east side of town, Tom’s President Christy Kuhnke says “changes within the business climate are always inevitable.”

“It’s important to stay on top of the game and plan accordingly,” Kuhnke says. “We will continue on with our current operating philosophy, just as we have since 1946: focusing on clean, accessible markets, excellent customer service and quality product variety.”

Kuhnke points to Tom’s presenting sponsorship of the Taste the Local Difference program and the chain’s operation of six Grand Traverse and Leelanau county locations as evidence of the company’s commitment to northern Michigan. Like other local retailers interviewed by The Ticker, the store also has one eye on future growth as the grocery marketplace continues to shift and expand.

“We do not presently have any plans for opening additional grocery stores,” says Kuhnke. “However, our Interlochen Tom’s is located on a 34-acre parcel of land, (which is) currently approved as a PUD (planned unit development) for future commercial and retail development.” Over the next decade, a Gateway Master Plan adopted by Green Lake Township highlights the property as one of several key sites for mixed-used growth in Interlochen's US-31/M-137 corridor, with a total of up to 18 buildings approved for the parcel.