Brown’s Super Stores

Brown’s Super Stores grocery in Philadelphia, PA. In 2004, Founder, President and CEO Jeffrey Brown opened his first location in a low-income Philadelphia neighborhood in an effort to address food deserts. Brown first met with community leaders to discuss the neighborhood’s food and service needs, including his target population’s religious and cultural backgrounds. Today, Brown operates ten profitable affordable ShopRite supermarkets in low-income neighborhoods in and around the city. He invests in skilled butchers, fishmongers, and in-store chefs, and offers targeted products including Halal meat, and collard greens to appeal to southern African American patrons. Brown lobbied the transportation authority to put bus stations near the stores and, in partnership with local nonprofits, offers free services including on-site staff nutritionists, social workers, health clinics, credit unions, and community centers in some stores. Brown also founded UpLift Solutions, a nonprofit that advises other groceries opening up in food deserts, and trains former inmates and places them in jobs in Brown’s Super Stores locations.