Forty Acres Fresh Market plants its roots in Austin

When Forty Acres Fresh Market opened its doors in September 2025, the full-service grocery store filled a gap for customers in the Austin neighborhood with fresh produce, a butcher counter and more. Almost nine months into operations, the store has built on those offerings. They now have a license to sell alcohol, a floral department, and a customer loyalty program. 

The idea for the store had been growing in the mind of owner Liz Abunaw for years before the automatic sliding doors glided open for the first time. 

Abunaw, who is originally from upstate New York, had been working for General Mills for more than a decade when she came to Chicago to go to business school. Afterward, she was back in the white-collar workplace at Microsoft for a few more years before her position was reorganized out of existence. 

“They gave a really good exit package,” Abunaw said. “And I realized I’d saved pretty well, so I ran the numbers. I didn’t immediately have to go to work, so I was like well I’ve been thinking about this grocery thing. If not now, when? Just try it out.”

Forty Acres debuted in 2018 at pop-up markets in Austin and Maywood, then added a produce box delivery service. 

“At first, it was about learning the business, learning the industry, seeing how I could grow from pop-ups into a store.” Abunaw said. “I had the idea of a neighborhood fresh market on the Westside in my head. It just kind of kept percolating.”

Then the pandemic hit in 2020. The produce box delivery business, which had been a smaller part of her overall plan, boomed. Still, Abunaw could see that Austin’s lack of grocery stores was an opportunity to meet a demand.

“I saw a neighborhood and a community that was not adequately served by the options that were available nearby,” she said. “I saw a neighborhood that spent a large portion of its disposable income in other neighborhoods.”

The hunger was there, then a building that had been occupied by the Salvation Army came available.

“We were like, okay,” she said. “We wanted to be on Chicago Avenue. We wanted to be in Austin. It’s a corner lot with a parking lot.”

The doors opened in September 2025. Aisles were filled with fresh produce, a butcher counter, dairy, frozen foods, pet foods, dry goods. Also ready to go was a hot food bar. It was a key part of the formula from the get-go. Abunaw wants to be comparable with what customers expect to find at grocery store chains.

The store also goes beyond those expectations with store tours, in-store sampling and cooking demonstrations.

“Part of my goal is the process of discovery of different foods, different ways of preparing things,” Abunaw said. “People are finding veggies that they normally wouldn’t pick up. And a lot of people are like, ‘I would have never gotten a butternut squash. I would have never chosen mustard greens, but like they’re here. I’m going to try it.’”