WORCESTER—After reopening in the Canal District in September, Maker to Main is permanently closing.
Owner Lynn Cheney announced that Friday and Saturday are the market’s final days in a Facebook post on Friday morning.
“After 12 years of grassroots efforts hauling local food, numerous awards, endless business pivots and millions of dollars to local farmers, brewers + makers I can no longer afford to continue,” Cheney wrote.
Cheney started out with the business Lettuce Be Local Food Hub, a business that connected locally grown food to restaurants and small stores, in 2012.
That business evolved into Maker to Main, a local food market, that opened on Main Street in February 2020.
In October 2022, Cheney told MassLive that if she could go back in time she probably wouldn’t open her store in downtown Worcester, saying it was not a rewarding experience.
During the pandemic, Cheney said the bustling foot traffic downtown disappeared and was slow to return.
In February, 2023, Cheney announced she was moving the store to Harding Street in the Canal District in hopes that a higher level of foot traffic would drive business.
Cheney said in Friday’s post that she “realized you can pivot, fix problems, follow economic trends and implement new tactics to fulfill demand, but in the end still fail because not everything is within your control.”
Cheney said her mission was to make local food accessible in every iteration of her business.
“I set out to educate on the importance of supporting local farms, but also the importance of supporting local businesses,” Cheney said to her customers. “While I still don’t feel my job is done, I’m proud I was able to share my experience with you. The mere process of getting to know you, your family and story while sharing my knowledge of our local food system will be my most missed memory.”
Cheney thanked her team, local farmers, and makers. She specifically thanked the local farmers and makers for teaching her that you can do everything right and still struggle to move forward but to take it in stride because tomorrow’s another day.
She will continue to show up for small business owners, she said, acknowledging that they’re exhausted and the fight has been harder now than during COVID.
“Failure is a funny thing,” Cheney wrote. “It’s not until you completely lose everything and hit rock bottom do you realize…all that’s left is to climb again. For now, I’ll reflect on 12 years as an entrepreneur and allow myself to feel the sadness of this monumental loss, but then I will climb again.”
The store will be open Friday and Saturday until 6 p.m. with everything in the store 25 percent off.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford and Antigua and Barbuda. She’s been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
