Our Mission

Permanently Closed

AFTER 10 YEARS, the mission continues

Dear Friends,

After nearly 10 years, Seasoned Specialty Food Market has closed.

Through its social-impact mission, Seasoned helped hundreds of emerging Minnesota food makers get their products in front of new customers, onto store shelves, and into homes—while giving as much as 100% of product sales back to the makers. That was the heart of our co-retail model and my life for the last 10 years. I will miss every single one of you.

While Seasoned has closed, the work of co-retail is continuing. In partnership with The Market Entry Fund, we are providing funding and hands-on support to help other Minnesota grocery stores make room on their shelves for more local food products in this same community-centered way.

Thank you for shopping with us, supporting local food makers, and believing in this work. I am excited for this next chapter and hope you will continue supporting Minnesota’s food makers and the stores carrying this work forward. Find more detail in the link below.

With gratitude,

Kayla Yang-Best, Founder & Social Entrepreneur

COMMUNITY RETAIL LIVES ON AT THESE NEW RETAILERS | IN PARTERNSHIP WITH THE MARKET ENTRY FUND

A Local MARKET WITH A BIG PURPOSE WILL PASS ON ITS MISSION

Uniquely different by giving 100% of the sales proceeds back to emerging local food makers.

We were all about local foods and helping the small-batch food maker enter and thrive in the market place. Our experience was working with traditionally marginalized food makers, processors and women-owned food businesses.

At our core, we were a producer-led market with a unique grocery model that helped food startups and emerging food businesses to bring their finest products directly to consumers, while working to connect them to more retailers, and give them all proceeds from their food sales. We called this co-retail - an artisanal grocery model with potential to create efficiencies and equip small producers to scale.

In our store, shoppers felt like they were at a farmer’s market, a foodie gift shop, and a small-scale but fully stocked grocery store all at once. What did that mean? It meant that shoppers could find handcrafted, small-batch food items for gifts for any occasion; get to know the makers, and buy groceries and ingredients to make a full meal at home.

While this exact feel may no longer be present, the mission to enable local food making and the people behind it, will live on in a new partnership with The Market Entry Fund - where at least seven established retailers across MN will create their own unique co-retail experience and impact for our local producers and customers.

many thanks to OUR COMMUNITY & practice

Dedicated People

Creative. Pioneering. Friendly. Our team of staff & countless volunteers was always ready to welcome you. As founder, I created community retail (or co-retail) to elevate inclusion of all food businesses in local food systems, after spending several years back in 2014 as a food producer experiencing firsthand, a system with layers of gender and racial inequities. I was determined to bring change; and that we did together.

"Do Good" First

Many of our products were made with love from makers of color and women-owned businesses. We are so thankful for you! Since we opened in 2017, we have worked with numerous makers to advance them to more retailers and customers, while helping them retain all proceeds from their food sales. We call this co-retail, a new way of equipping small food businesses to scale.

More Than A Grocery Store

Here, we welcomed all - customers, practitioners, coaches, nonprofit partners and countless supports. We curated food products from different cultural communities from across MN and the US. Our goal was to ensure that all local, small-batch producers and their products get a chance to equitably compete in the market place.

With co-retail, we were the only grocery store of its kind. We aimed to remove social, economic and racial barriers in the system. And we partnered with individuals and not-for-profits to ensure food producers and their brands get the best possible opportunities.