BILLINGS – Since the closure of Good Earth Market, downtown Billings has been lacking choices when it comes to groceries.
One new little store hopes to fill a need for the downtown community.
Downtown Billings welcomes Lil’ Market owned by Larry Mathew
The grocery store is located on Broadway, in the Valley Credit Union Building,
Valley’s Senior Vice President came into another of Mathew’s business ventures, Mr. Thrifty, with an idea.
“He approached me, said they had a need and this space, so I thought it was a good idea and it’s been going on for about six or seven months now,” Lil’ Market Groceries owner Larry Mathew said.
And so Lil’ Market Groceries was born.
The store will provide food, cold drinks, and some toiletries to the downtown community.
“I have no idea how many hundreds or thousands of people are living downtown, I know that there are 5,000 that work downtown so it’s got a good population base,” Mathew said.
Mathew says he isn’t concerned about competition.
“Just a challenging concept, I think there’s a spot for little neighborhood grocers still. Everyone’s going to Amazon Same-Day Delivery or Walmart or whatnot but I think there’s a place for a little grocery store that will take care of this neighborhood and the people that work in this area,” Mathew said.
They will sell local Mazevo coffee and various other Montana Made products.
“We’re really going to develop,” Mathew said, “We started with a basic grocery set and we’re going to be very flexible. We’re going to let the people come in and tell us what they’re looking for, what they hope to find, and as we can rotate through the stock we’ll try to fit it to the people down here and get them what they want,”.
Lil’ Market Groceries will be open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. and will be closed Sundays.
They are located at 207 North Broadway.
