Green Top Grocery to remain open thanks to $45K in donations

Posted on April 18, 2024
Green Top
Allison Smith, Green Top Grocery interim General Manager visited WJBC’s Afternoon Show. (Photo courtesy: WJBC/File)

By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – One local grocery store, which faces financial hardship, plans to keep its doors open for now.

Over the past month, Green Top Grocery in Bloomington launched a GoFundMe to keep the co-op grocery store open.

A month later, with over $45,000 in donations, Green Top plans to keep its doors open.

“Really where we stand today is that Go Fund Me has bought us time,” Green Top interim general manager Allison Smith said on WJBC’s Afternoon Show. “We needed time to recoup, reorganize, reanalyze, and that’s what we are in the middle of doing right now.”

According to Smith, Green Top used the Go Fund Me donations to pay back local vendors. However, they still face loan debt with local banks.

“Some of the lenders we’re working with are cooperatives themselves. So they do say they want us to thrive; I’m trying to believe them, and they will give us the terms that we need to be positive and not negative at the end of the month.”

In the meantime, Green Top plans to launch a new marketing plan along with working with local lenders.

“I have four priorities that I’m trying to address currently, and that’s with the financials,” Smith added on WJBC. “(I’m working on) increasing sales and marketing, creating a business plan to present to the lenders, as well as finding good leadership.”

Green Top is located at 921 E. Washington St. in Bloomington. A Go Fund Me can be found by clicking here. 

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].

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