A homegrown grocery chain, MOM’s Organic Market, is planning to open its first store in Northwest Washington, D.C.
In 1987, Scott Nash started MOM’s with an initial investment of $100 as a home delivery business out of his mother’s garage in Beltsville. The first independent location was opened in 1990 on Parklawn Drive in Rockville, and since then, Nash has opened 19 other stores from Gaithersburg to Philadelphia.
The northwest D.C. store is expected to come up near the American University Park neighborhood.
“It’s vague, but this is going to be fantastic, like ground zero for MOM’s customers,” Nash said, adding that development specifics are being worked out, but he is confident that it will be one of the unique and most successful stores of the chain.
$7,352,895 paid to fair trade farmers since 2001 – thank you to our customers who play a HUGE role in this partnership! #gratitude ❤️ More: https://t.co/h4gbEeETTS pic.twitter.com/TquJiDB7lG
— MOM's Organic Market (@MOMsOrganicMrkt) January 27, 2019
In the meantime, Nash is also planning to open other stores, including in Silver Spring, before expanding further in Philadelphia and also in New York.
He noted, however, that the new $2 million D.C. location, which will open after about three years of construction, could be the chain’s best store.
“There are a lot of large neighborhoods around there and the demographic is educated and into the things we’re into. Plus, there aren’t any MOM’s locations around there, so it will really fill a major void,” Nash added.
MOM’s sells only organic produce and plastic grocery bags have been banned there since 2005, while plastic water bottles were banned in 2010. The company sales reach about $12 million a year per store, with each location employing about 50 people.