The local Harvest Urban Market opened with much excitement in the Fall of 2004. Heralded as your local organic grocery store, the market has struggled to hone its niche in a not-quite-yet transitioned neighborhood. When it opened, it focused on expensive, gourmet organic ingredients and hard-to-find items for rounding out your high end kitchen. However, many of the neighborhood's residents, some with a roof overhead and many not, didn't quite warm up to the pricy options.

Since opening, the store has backed off its aspirational offerings and has somewhat dumbed down its merchandise to a large convenience store. That's how I see that store. Its very convenient for that forgotten item or last minute beer, but otherwise I shop at Safeway. They have done well with their ready-to-eat meals and salad bar, and seem to do a pretty brisk lunch and coffee/breakfast business. With Trinity opening up the street in another year, and promises of a "major grocer" being rumored, I'm curious to see if they can go back to their gourmet organic roots to differentiate and survive, or simply go under. Whether you're a fan or not, nobody on 8th Street wants to see that happen...