More than 60 years ago, when Chris Sotiriou’s grandfather opened the Broadway Pharmacy and Market (242 E 300 S) in downtown Salt Lake City, neighborhood grocery stores had at least another decade before they would begin to feel the crushing impact of interstate expressway systems, expanding suburbs, the ever-increasing reliance on automobiles for shopping trips, and the shifts in retail activity from city centers.

Just in the last 20 years alone, more than 100,000 small retailers across the country have closed, giving way to big-box supermarkets that typically carry as many as 40,000 items in massive spaces of 60,000, 70,000, or more square feet.

Happily, Sotiriou, a pharmacist and third-generation owner, along with members of his family have kept this charming market intact. And, with larger numbers of downtown SLC residents who increasingly eschew the big-box retail experience in favor of locally grown produce, milk, eggs, meat and other products that support area farmers and reduce the environmental footprint, Sotiriou has enlisted the help of Kathie Chadbourne, formerly the owner of Avenue’s Bakery, to change the store’s dynamic to meet precisely this demand.

In a short time, Chadbourne, whose network of contacts with local food producers, suppliers, and growers unquestionably is comprehensive and diverse, has effected quite an encouraging transformation in less than two and a half months.

Already, more than 50 local food producers are represented in the store with products ranging from Beehive Cheese to Heritage Valley Organics poultry to Canyon Meadows Ranch beef and Morgan Valley Lamb and from Amano’s prize-winning chocolates to buttery cookies, velvety cupcakes, and in-house pastries including galettes adorned with fresh fruit and nuts. The store also offers a solid sampling of Rico’s products and makings for a freshly baked pizza as well as other ethnic food items including those representing Sotiriou’s Greek heritage. And, with Utah’s peak growing season now in full force, customers will see fresh, organic produce in the colorful display near the front of the store.

Sandwiches, salads, and soups – including a sweetly fragrant tomato and basil offering – are made in house and have been consistently flying out the door. With extended hours, the store has been drawing new clientele just from being open during major events such as the recent Pride festival and the monthly downtown art gallery evening strolls.

The store, which still offers traditional grocery and nonfood staples for the convenience of its downtown customers, has also received a cosmetic facelift that certainly has warmed the experience of casually strolling the aisles checking out the unusual mix of products, including the intriguingly nostalgic packages of Fentimans’ botanically brewed soft drinks. And, of course, the full-service pharmacy is available as usual.

Customers also will notice artifacts retrieved from basement storage such as an antique vault, a display case, and a huge weathered chopping block, now proudly standing amid the retail section where Mediterranean olive oils are displayed and where some of the store’s product samplings are offered. The southeast corner of the store now features a bright display of food-related art which has the functional aesthetic of suggesting another new store service – assembling customized food gift baskets per individual tastes.

The rejuvenated Broadway Urban Market bears watching especially as it parallels an equally rejuvenating trend in terms of small-based farmers and local food producers, such as Butcher’s Bunches, a Cache Valley based family operation that is producing phenomenal fruit jams and jellies. In the United States, farmers’ markets have doubled in numbers just during the last decade and while many participate in these venues, small urban-based stores such as the Broadway present yet another promising channel to distribute and sell their goods.

And, likewise for shoppers in search of fresh organic produce or locally-made products that follow an environmentally sustainable model, the Broadway store fills a niche especially for those who might not be able to make it regularly to a farmers’ market.

Furthermore, certainly as Sotiriou’s grandfather discovered in the late 1940s, a demand is created just by virtue of the store’s existence – acting as a welcoming hub for a changing community that not only appreciates the options for making socially conscious choices to buy locally but for the easy walkable access to have those options.

As Sotiriou has discovered, with the help of Chadbourne and others, it does make a difference.