The store has also become a laboratory for testing new food concepts. Technicians at an independent grower, for instance, figured that if Central Market customers could adjust to a radical redesign of the grocery store, they might be good test subjects for a new vegetable. So the technicians sent shoppers home with samples of a new invention -- "broccolini," a combination of broccoli and kale. Central Market customers tried it out and gave it a thumbs-up. Now the hybrid stalk can be found in H-E-B stores all over Texas.
The Central Market business experiment is also working. Last year, it began bringing in $1 million a week on a regular basis. The store, which cost $10 million to $15 million to launch, needed two years to reach profitability. But it now enjoys a healthy net income, Campbell reports. "For a while, I was looking around town for a bridge that was high enough for me to jump off," he says. Not anymore: This spring, he's opening another Central Market outlet in Austin, just a few miles down the road from the current one.
Ron Lieber (rlieber@fastcompany.com) is a food-loving senior writer at Fast Company. Daniela Stallinger is a New York-based photographer. Visit central market on the Web (www.centralmarket.com).
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