Korner-Copia is opening tomorrow! (Johnson City, Kingsport: home, neighborhood, buying)

[Beretta]

Downtown Kingsport is finally getting a neighborhood grocery, deli and gourmet store! Korner-Copia opens tomorrow in the old Sobel's location on Center Street!

[pineywoods]

What an asset to Kingsport! It's truly a "destination" type grocery store. I'll be shopping there when in town...and having a cuppa joe and a muffin after a hard day's "work" buying groceries.

[BadJuju]

Too bad Food City will be building a grocery store downtown soon as well.

[jabogitlu]

I think that Korner-Copia will be a bit different than Food City, though. Too bad I'm in Canada for its first opening days! BTW where is Food City going in?

[rccrain]

At the Quebecor site, about .5 miles NW of the Korner-Copia's central location.

IMO Korner-Copia is more suited for downtown living than Food City. Both businesses can be successful, but the expansiveness and hassle of Food City is what many downtowners seek to avoid.

[mbmouse]

I don't believe Food City will hurt Korner-Copia, but actually help it. This way they can focus more on the specialty items that Korner-Copia, a true small corner market, want to carry that Food City won't. I welcome Food City to downtown Kingsport.
I think Korner-Copia turned out to be a pretty darn cool spot.

[NorthernLights]

NO WAY.....way??? Thanks for the heads up Beretta.

That's so cool MB!!! Sooner than I thought too.

I'll be up this week [fair warning]. I'm so looking forward to seeing the place since you showed Kamoshika and I around months ago. It's such a cool building and a great location for the current and future denizens of downtown K-port. Your ideas on the types of speciality items you were targeting and the deli counter and bulk food supplies will be unique in the entire K-port area!!!

Food City?? Puhhleeeezze. Nice to see they think enough of downtown K-port to bother but seriously...that's like a Kia dealership opening up next to your Porsche dealership. The price difference won't be as great as that example but the quality of the goods...big difference. I hope people spread the word that an alternative to the pre-packaged, limp offerings of the big chains will learn about your store soon!

[NorthernLights]

Okay, so it took me over a month to get by Kingsport and visit MB at Korner Copia.
You know how it goes, even though she's only fifteen minutes up the road from me in Boone's Creek, other projects have kept me closer to home and... yada, yada.... That said, I'm really glad I finally stopped by!!!
I recently got my bike tuned up @ Ken's cycles in Gray and decided I needed to see how they did on the tune up [fantastic BTW, if I must say, but that's a different thread] anyway, I cruised the Sabre up to Korner Copia today for a sandwich and to check things out. Mary Beth has a really nice set up going on I must say. She's taking the 'anti-mainstream' route of not trying to compete with the grocery stores and delis that sell the standard school cafeteria, mayo/salt/MSG based, macaroni salad hash and instead selling "something else" I think if she's looking for a store motto, it could very well be; "we sell...something else."
I found a store stocked with cool breads of different varieties, unusual sodas, bulk spices galore up stairs. Some really cool stuff. My only mistake was bringing the bike and forgetting to put my saddle bags on so I could grab several things she had upstairs in the spice section. I will return soon with my car and stock up on a few things she's got that I haven't seen elsewhere.
I think she's playing it smart with the deli counter and only offering about a dozen sandwiches that are all excellent rather than trying to be everything to everyone. In this economy that creates so much waste. Better to decide on a small selection of really good items and sandwiches and stress the quality of those. That may make it sound like there's little to choose from but that's not the case at all. She has simply listened to her clientele and what they really like...and just sells that....SMART!! Better to stock some really cool stuff that no one else has that people really want than trying to be everything to everyone. That leads to too much waste in inventory.
If you live in Kingsport and like cheese and hate the crappy selection at the standard grocery stores you need to see MB. She's got some good stuff, unusual stuff like Stilton with berries in it, goat cheese, great Brie and Fontina and REAL Moazzarella, phenomenal Feta, etc. While you're there go upstairs and check out her bulk spices. You'll find stuff that you can't find anywhere else in K-port.
Pick up a loaf of bread and check her unique condiments too. Boetje's coarse ground mustard, haven't seen the like down here. Mucke's sausage. She's starting to stock the asian stuff too and if folks show the interest I'm sure she'll pursue that further.
She also showed me a bunch of dried veggie chips like squash chips, etc. She said they're flying out of the store. What amazed me is she said they are imported and that there has been a huge interest in them nationwide apparently. I have to wonder if local farmers might get in on that trend by simply buying a dehydrator for their farms. I will say something about it to my favorite produce stand down here in Lamar. It may be a really cool venue for some of our local farmers if it's such a hot trend!
Anyway, Thanks MB! Loved the turkey sandwich on the good bread with the sliced apples and dried cranberries and the salads were great. Your Mint Tea was excellent also.
I wish you well, I think you've got a great idea of trying to offer "something else" in the Tri-Cities. I'm also not surprised that folks are requesting you to cater for them. With your selection of sandwiches and cheeses I would think it would be great to have you take care of a meeting or party for me if I needed that service.

[SarahSal]

It is *the* most wonderful market!! We visited during a trip to Bays Mountain (and the new Kingsport dinosaur museum) with 3-yr old grandson in tow, enjoyed a fabulous lunch and left with a variety of food items that we're still enjoying. From organic cereal, organic munchies to Fontina cheese and whole wheat pancake mix, it was a fun shopping trip. One of our favorites was raspberry goat cheese, which my visiting CT sister-in-law raved about. We transformed an ordinary salad with it and it was deeelicious! Next trip we plan to snag some coffee beans and definitely more cheese... Didn't someone recently ask about Italian cheeses? This is the place to go.. We wish the owners the very best of luck - and hope they do so well that they'll eventually consider opening a place in or near downtown JC.. Kingsport is most fortunate to have Korner-Kopia.

[jabogitlu]

I heard today that a grocery store is considering downtown Johnson City ("it's on the horizon") and I wondered if it's Korner-Copia. What do you say, Mary-Beth??? Franchising???