The lighting was dim, the shelving was worn and the equipment was noisy. It didn’t fit the vision of Manager Cynthia Lee and her family for a welcoming and energy-efficient store where they could offer healthy food options for the community. Madison Oriental Market at Northgate Shopping Center in Madison was about to get a major face-lift. 

The Lee family took over the 4,000-square-foot grocery store in 2017. Last year, they completed a series of upgrades, allowing them to expand their niche to offer specialty groceries to shoppers of Asian, Latino, Indian and African descent, including fresh meat, fish, produce and dairy products.  

A $150,000 grant from the City of Madison's Healthy Food Retail Access Program helped move the project forward. This program offers funding for projects that improve access to affordable, healthy and culturally appropriate retail within underserved areas.  

“This was a perfect fit for our business because our vision was to have more diverse and healthy offerings,” Lee said. “And, we wanted to make these options accessible to many in the neighborhood, like those who don’t have cars but can walk across the street to our market.” 

The City of Madison grant was used to purchase new coolers and freezers as the program focuses on the elements of expansion that help stock more fresh, healthy foods. 

“The new freezers and coolers have self-closing doors and current technology to make them extremely energy efficient. They also provide optimal conditions for storing food like meat and produce. They even extend the shelf life of product,” Lee explained. “It’s such an improvement over the old equipment—open coolers that resulted in significant energy loss and freezers with a tendency to break down and ruin the food they were storing.” 

Planning further improvements, the City partnered with other experts, including: 

• MGE.  
• Focus on Energy®, Wisconsin’s energy efficiency and renewable resource program. 
• FEED Kitchens, a project of the Northside Planning Council, offering a shared commercial kitchen for preparing food to sell to the public. 

Lighting was identified as another top area needing improvement. 

“Our existing lights were dull and flickered,” Lee said. “We replaced them with LED lights, which are brighter, last longer and use less energy than traditional bulbs.” 

Other improvements included: 

• A full kitchen with a stove for grilling vegetables and preparing other hot foods. 
• A café area at the front of the store. 
• Additional shelving and space for more products that were not previously available, including bread and milk. 

A rebate of nearly $8,000 from Focus on Energy helped cover project costs. Additionally, the Alexander Company, the property’s landlord, assisted with lighting costs. 

“We started by simply wanting to branch out and offer more options for more customers,” Lee said. “While that was the driver, we also learned the value of energy efficiency along the way and made it a priority throughout the renovation.” 

With its new energy-efficient equipment, Madison Oriental Market is expected to save about $8,000 in energy costs annually.  Back to Cover