The Gila River Indian Community has long relied on convenience stores to feed its more than 13,000 residents — who otherwise may have to drive as far as half an hour away to neighboring cities with grocery stores, like Maricopa, Coolidge, Casa Grande or even the Valley. But now, a new market just opened on Thursday much closer to home.
“This isn’t a Bashas. It’s not a Safeway or a Walmart,” said Duncan Winston, general manager of Gila River Development. “We don’t have hundreds of stores that we can leverage to offer the same price point they can.”
The grand opening of Sacaton Market has been a decade in the making.
The 14,000-square-foot supermarket nestled in the heart of Sacaton — the tribal capital south of Phoenix — is much more than a store. It’s a symbol of their sovereignty since few, if any, tribes outright own their own grocers.
“We don’t want to leave that in the hands of a larger chain to determine who gets what,” added Winston. “We want to be able to fight for ourselves and bring the necessary goods to our community when we need them.”
From fresh produce and butchered meats to a deli serving local favorites, like the so-called ‘works burger,’ which used to be sold at a former tribal business but has since been on hiatus – until now.
“One of the biggest demands from the community was, ‘You got to bring the works back,’” added Winston. “And so we’ve done that, maybe not exactly how it was done in the past, but we've done our own iteration of it – a handmade beef patty, and the buns are made in-house with love and care.”
But that doesn’t come cheap, because of what some refer to as rez-flation.
“We have experienced it here,” said Winston. “I mean, it’s difficult finding reputable vendors who are willing to bring us goods and services at a fair price. Although we are rural, we are a lot closer to the metropolitan Phoenix area than a lot of the other tribes in Arizona.”
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