Brad Paisley is Opening up a Grocery Store

It’s actually going to be called “The Store” and the country star, in partnership with his alma mater Belmont University.

They just broke ground for construction to begin and be completed by the end of this year. It will be located in Nashville and Paisley and his wife, actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley told the Associated Press that the idea came out of Santa Barbara California where the couple volunteered in a similar store called the Unity Shoppe.

The store will operate like a real grocery store where people can go shopping up and down the aisles and Belmont students and other volunteers will scan their items at a checkstand - but no money will change hands. Everything in the store is free.

“Hunger and food insecurity is a real issue in Nashville,” said Williams-Paisley. “One in seven people deal with food insecurity. That means they don’t know where their next meal is coming from. And it’s even worse for kids, one in five children. The kids, she said, should not know what their parent is going through, that’s not stress a child needs.” Paisley said this model “takes away the sting of embarrassment for a parent who maybe feels that way because they can’t feed their kid.”

The store will be located on Belmont’s campus and next to the university’s Ministry Center, which will provide heath care and legal aid ministry clinics.

Brad added that even the mechanical horse for kids on the outside of the store will be free.