Open today · 7:00 am – 7:00 pm CST

SNAP · EBT · WIC accepted

Store No. 1 — Birmingham, AL

Carver Jones Market
Corporate HQ + Store No. 1

Birmingham deserves a grocery store.So we're building one.

Carver Jones Market is a full-service, neighborhood-built market opening in the neighborhoods the chains walked away from. Fresh produce, a real meat counter, fair prices, and jobs that stay in the ZIP code.

Join the movementApply for full or part time employment
West End · Ensley · Woodlawn · North Birmingham · Titusville · Pratt City · Collegeville · East Lake · Wylam ·
Why Birmingham

This is not a shortage. It's a decision.

Grocery chains closed here, consolidated to the suburbs, and left roughly two-thirds of a city driving past three gas stations to reach a head of lettuce. Every one of Birmingham's nine council districts has a neighborhood living with it.

Researchers increasingly call this food apartheid rather than a food desert — deserts occur naturally. This didn't.
Read the district map

The Standing Bill

Birmingham, Alabama · Ongoing

Residents living without close grocery access
~150,000
Portion of the city affected
69%
Council districts affected
9 of 9
Jefferson County residents in food deserts
205,657
Full-service stores Carver Jones Market has open
0 → 1
Balance dueOne store, then the next

Sources: Mayor's Grocery Store Update to Birmingham City Council (2019); The Food Trust food access report (2015). Figures to be refreshed before launch.

Paid forward by neighbors, not donors

Store No. 1

We started where we live.

Carver Jones Market is headquartered in Birmingham because Birmingham is the assignment. Store No. 1 is the proof — the floor plan, the payroll, and the produce order that every store after this one is built from. Watch it go up.

  1. 01

    Site secured

  2. 02

    Build-out

  3. 03

    Hiring

  4. 04

    Doors open

A long, softly lit grocery aisle with stocked shelves stretching toward the back of an empty store floor.
Inside Carver Jones Market
Shelves of fresh lettuce, peppers, squash and avocados stacked in tidy rows at a market produce display.01

Fresh produce, daily

Delivered and rotated every morning, priced for a household, not a food hall.

A bright meat counter with fresh cuts of beef, pork and poultry arranged behind clean glass.02

Fresh Meats

Package fresh daily. Beef, pork, poultry and seafood, priced for a household, not a food hall.

Rows of small-batch jars from local food makers lined up on a wooden shelf.03

Brands from home

Shelf space reserved for Locally-Owned food businesses across Alabama.

Rows of canned goods and private label products stacked neatly on grocery shelves.04

Private Label Brands

Great food at below-market prices. 100% guaranteed.

Promotional graphic reading Discount Tuesdays, 10% off, for seniors, military, teachers and college students with valid ID.05

Discount Tuesdays

10% Off Tuesdays — Every Tuesday all Seniors (60+), Active/Retired Military, Teachers, College Students with valid I.D.

A clean pharmacy counter with prescription bottles and wellness products ready to serve the community.06

Pharmacy Coming Soon

Carver Jones Market is proud to announce a partnership with Citizen Express Pharmacy.

Join the movement

Food insecurity ends the way it started — on purpose.

No one is coming to fix this for Birmingham. The store gets built by the people who decide it should exist. Add your name, tell us how you want to show up, and we'll put you to work.

How you want to show up (pick any)
  1. 1Add your name to the movement.
  2. 2We tell you what's needed and when.
  3. 3You show up.
Vendors

Our shelves have a hometown.

We buy from Alabama's Black farmers and food makers first. If you grow it, bake it, bottle it, or brine it — bring it to us.

Apply to sell at Carver Jones Market
A farmer carrying a crate of just-picked greens across a field in soft morning light, with the crew working behind.
More than groceries

A store is an anchor.

First jobs for young people, with real training. Cooking and nutrition classes in the community room. Standing partnerships with churches and schools. When the store does well, the block does well.

Three Black neighbors cooking side by side at a kitchen counter during a community cooking class, chopping vegetables and talking.
Voices
A woman in glasses and a red shirt smiling mid-conversation outdoors in soft daylight.
“People go constantly away from their neighborhood for food and now there is Carver Jones Market in our neighborhood.”
Carver Jones Market Serving West End
A young man in a grey shirt smiling on a tree-lined street in warm afternoon light.
“My kids should be able to walk somewhere and come back with real food and now there is a Carver Jones Market in our neighborhood.”
Carver Jones Market Serving Ensley
A woman with a patterned headwrap laughing outside in natural light.
“Having a grocery in in our area is piece of mind for me and my family. Now there is a Carver Jones Market in our neighborhood.”
Carver Jones Market Serving Five Points West
The roadmap

One store is a start. It is not the goal.

Store No. 1, Birmingham — building now. Next: the districts that have waited longest. Every location follows the same model, built by the neighborhood it feeds.

Partners & backers

Who's at the table.

City of Birmingham incentives · Alabama Healthy Food Financing Act · and lenders backing the build.

The Future

  • Carver Jones Market Future
  • Carver Jones Foundation
  • Carver Jones University
  • Carver Jones Corporate Offices
Careers

Apply for full or part time employment.

Store No. 1 hires from the ZIP codes it serves. Leave your information and we'll contact you as roles open — cashiers, stockers, produce, meat counter, deli, and delivery.