'We are completely a desert:' Baldwin closing only grocery store in town after it opened in 2019

BALDWIN, Fla. — The town of Baldwin will be closing its only grocery store after being open for just five years. Customers and employees express their frustration with Action News Jax. They said they’re now back to being a food desert.

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Neighbors in Baldwin were excited when Baldwin Marketplace opened back in 2019. Now, they’re heartbroken that an open sign on the front door said closed -- permanently.

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Assistant Store Manager Larry Phillips said, “We are completely a desert. We have no place to go to shop.”

Baldwin, with a population of 1,500 became a food desert -- a community with limited access to affordable and healthy food. This Marketplace was supposed to change that.

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But now the grocery is closing shop. The mayor’s office in Baldwin told us the lack of a customer base was the reason.

Phillips said, “We don’t get a lot of the town to support us. So business is not the best.”

Assistant Store Manager Larry Phillips started working here in 2021. He said business was going well until people started shopping less.

Two customers told Action News Jax they have been shopping here for two years now. They said they were shocked when they heard this place was closing.

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Customer Amber Johns said, “I don’t like that it’s closing. We depend on it. We work right beside it, and we depend on it for lunch every day.”

The Jacksonville City Council passed a proposal to provide incentives for big chain grocers to open stores in food desert areas. Baldwin was one of the few areas that took the opportunity and ran its own grocery store. We asked the mayor’s office if another business would replace this one. They said they don’t know at this time.

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The employees that work at the Baldwin Marketplace told Action News Jax if you want to go to a grocery store, the nearest one is in MacClenny, which is 10 miles away from Baldwin.

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