Hoopa Valley Tribe close to starting work on $5 million grocery store

Thursday, January 25, 2018  

The Hoopa Valley Tribe plans to open a $5 million grocery store on the reservation in northern California.

The tribe tried to recruit existing grocers after the only store in town closed in 2016. But no one was interested so the tribe has taken matters into its own hands, The North Coast Journal reported.

"We now have the opportunity — that we may not have had if a grocery chain were to come to Hoopa — to affect our community's health by developing our own grocery store," Chairman Ryan Jackson told The Journal.

The tribe expects to break ground on the 15,000 square-foot grocery store next month, The Journal reported. An opening could come in June.

The nearest grocery store is about 12 miles from Hoopa. The Ray’s Food Place in Willow Creek is operated by the same company that closed up shop on the reservation after a dispute over a rodent infestation. The tribe had been leasing space to the company for the reservation store.

The next closest store is about 20 miles from the reservation.

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Slim Pickins' (The North Coast Journal January 25, 2018)