Baptists Form Company, Buy Shopping Center : Church Steps In After Markets Bail Out

A minister and his community are taking a leap of faith and opening . . . a supermarket.

The Rev. Jerry Young noticed that in recent years two chains opened and then closed supermarkets in the shopping center down the road from his New Hope Baptist Church in northwestern Jackson.

It seemed to him that retailers were deserting the area as low-income people moved in, forcing residents to leave their neighborhood to buy groceries.

So Young decided to try to revitalize the shopping center.

He recruited some deacons and other church officials to form Help Inc. and sold stock to area residents for $10 a share. Help Ltd., a partnership formed by community leaders, bought the shopping center land and buildings. Church officials did not disclose the price.

Today, the shopping center, renamed Jackson North Plaza, includes an ice cream parlor and Family Dollar Store. A supermarket is to open next month. It will be called Broma, a biblical word meaning food.

Profit was not the primary motive, said Young, but he did his homework in hopes of making Broma a success. The pastor and some deacons visited grocery stores around the state to get ideas on how to run theirs.

Young also hired a former supermarket co-manager to run the store. About 60 other workers, mostly teen-agers, will stock shelves and run the cash registers.

Young admits the venture is a “tremendous step of faith.”

“We’re trying to address a need. The community will respond to that,” he said.

But the supermarket will have to survive with a handicap: It will not sell beer. “It’s against our doctrine,” Young said.