The Bethlehem Co-op Market Is Already Open on Thursdays

In 2011 a Bethlehem resident named Jaime Karpovich went looking for a red pepper and couldn't find one close to home. That search led to a public call and a first meeting at the Bethlehem Area Public Library, and it is where the Bethlehem Co-op Market began.

Fifteen years later the store at 250 E. Broad St. has an opening date of Saturday, Dec. 5, 2026. Since Oct. 1 it has also been open, in a limited way, to anyone who walks in on the right afternoon. The co-op calls this a phased opening. For the next six weeks, the most useful thing it offers neighbors is a direct look at the regional producers the store is being built around, all set up in the finished space before the regular shelves fill in.

Four years of "almost" on East Broad Street

Residents have watched this corner for a long time. Before construction, the site held a one-story building reported as a former CrossFit gym. The plan replaced it with a four-story mixed-use building, with the market on the ground floor and apartments above. The co-op doesn't own the building. It is a tenant of Peron Development.

The groundbreaking was May 5, 2022, and at the time the goal was to finish construction in May or June 2023. That date passed. A 2024 opening passed too. In October 2024, Lehigh Valley Public Media reported that the store had moved to an unspecified date in 2025. The co-op explained part of the delay by how its largest grant works. The $2.9 million federal HUD grant it won in 2021 pays back money only after the co-op has spent it, so equipment had to be bought before the grant dollars arrived.

The Dec. 5 date was announced in late September by board chairman Todd Mertz and Mayor J. William Reynolds. The co-op now has nearly 1,800 member-owners who helped pay for the project. St. Luke's University Health Network and Moravian University have also supported it. "Now we get to welcome people into the store, fill it with activity, and begin doing what we've worked toward for so long," Mertz told lehighvalleylive.com.

Thursdays bring the suppliers into the store

The Thursday Preview Market Days run 4 to 7 p.m. Each one features some of the local vendors whose products will be sold in the finished store, and shoppers buy directly from them. October 1 has passed. Three Thursdays are left, and the lineup changes from date to date.

The co-op's newsletter says these appearances may change. On Thursdays the co-op is also selling a limited number of $40 seasonal produce boxes from Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-op. Visitors can tour the store, ask about becoming a member-owner, and buy co-op merchandise.

Each date suits a different shopper. Oct. 15 is the one for fall fruit and cider, since Scholl Orchards and Keystone Cheese both join the core group. Oct. 29 is the plant-based and gluten-free evening, with Butterhead Kitchen and Haasis Gluten Free Bakery both there. Nov. 12 is the last Thursday and the only one with Nutty Novelties. It is also Scholl Orchards' second visit, three weeks before opening day.

Most of the list is local

Lay the vendor list over a map and a pattern shows up. Much of it comes from Bethlehem and the surrounding Lehigh Valley.

• Bethlehem: Bub's Breads, a sourdough bakery run by chef-turned-baker Michael Joyce that uses freshly milled flour and locally sourced grains. Scholl Orchards, which grows fruit and vegetables and presses apples into cider. Green Pond Packaging, which makes plant-based, plastic-free packaging and dinnerware for restaurants. Keystone Cheese, a Bethlehem cheese seller whose founder's story, as Lehigh Valley Business reported it, centers on small-batch cheeses from Wisconsin cheesemakers.
• Bethlehem Township: Butterhead Kitchen, which makes small-batch vegan cheeses, dips and meat alternatives.
• Allentown: Fresh Tofu Inc., which makes organic small-batch tofu and baked tofu, and High Point Kombucha, which brews kombucha with ingredients that include locally sourced produce.
• Coopersburg: Dragonfly Hill Farm & Kitchen, which grows vegetables and turns them into small-batch prepared foods.
• Berks County: Primordia Farm in Lenhartsville, which grows chemical-free specialty mushrooms such as shiitake, oyster and lion's mane. Meadow View Bees in Kutztown, which sells raw honey and other hive products.
• Bucks and Montgomery counties: Bluestem Botanicals in Doylestown, which sells herbs, teas, soaps and honey. Haasis Gluten Free Bakery in Perkasie, whose baked goods are gluten-, nut- and dye-free. Nutty Novelties in Telford, which makes small-batch nut butters.

This shows how the co-op plans to stock the store. It says it will put local farmers and producers first, buying produce, meat, seafood and cheese locally wherever it can. It will also use a mainline produce supplier to keep the range wide. Once December comes, those two supply streams will share the same aisles. The Thursdays are the only time the local half has the room to itself, with the bakers, growers and makers standing behind their own tables. The co-op's newsletter notes that shoppers may already know several of them from farmers markets, produce stands and earlier co-op pop-ups.

Saturdays run on pre-orders

The Saturday hours, 9 a.m. to noon every week through Nov. 14, work differently. There's no vendor market. Shoppers pre-order a curated grocery box with produce, meat, dairy and pantry items, then pick it up at the store and take a tour while they're there. From today, Oct. 4, that leaves six pickup Saturdays: Oct. 10, 17, 24 and 31, then Nov. 7 and 14.

As of the co-op's last update on Sept. 25, its opening-plans page still told shoppers to check back for ordering details. Box sizes, prices and deadlines hadn't been posted. The Bethlehem Co-op Market website is the place to check before planning a Saturday stop. Membership isn't needed to shop at the store. The co-op is asking its member-owners to make at least one purchase during the preview weeks, and it's offering new memberships and volunteer sign-ups at the events. Money spent during the preview period goes toward getting ready for the full opening.

Getting in and out of 250 E. Broad

The co-op says it picked this site partly because it sits on safe walking and cycling routes and on a bus route. Here's what that looks like on the ground:

• A free parking lot with a two-hour limit
• Two electric vehicle chargers
• Bike racks, a crosswalk and a bus stop at the store
• Shopping carts that take a quarter deposit, so carts get returned to the entrance and no parking spaces go to cart corrals

Late October gets busy downtown. The city's Halloween Party on the Plaza is Oct. 28, 6 to 8 p.m., at Payrow Plaza, 10 E. Church St. That's the evening before the Oct. 29 preview market. Citywide Trick-or-Treat Night is the next evening, Friday, Oct. 30, from 6 to 8 p.m.

What December adds

The full store will carry much more than the Thursday tables. Planned departments include produce; bulk bins for spices, herbs, coffee, tea, grains, pasta, flour, oils and vinegar; an everyday-value line; world flavors; refrigerated and frozen foods; meat, seafood and cheese; and wellness products. A prepared-foods section will offer hot and cold dishes, grab-and-go food made in-house, and a beverage bar. The co-op also says it is working to accept SNAP/EBT and WIC and plans a Food For All program to lower prices for low-income families.

The co-op's September opening announcement gives preview hours but no regular store hours for after Dec. 5. Until opening day, the store's schedule is the preview calendar: three Thursday evenings and six Saturday mornings at 250 E. Broad St.

A new grocery store a few blocks away changes daily life in ways that rarely show up in a listing, and our team tracks those changes across Bethlehem as closely as we track the market. If you'd like to talk about what openings like the co-op mean for your street, from the North Side to downtown, The Cliff Lewis Experience is glad to share what we're seeing. Contact Us whenever you're ready.