Customers shop recently at the Bargain Grocery on River Street in Troy.

Twice in recent weeks, I’ve gone grocery shopping in central Troy. That might not seem like such a big deal — and it shouldn’t be, really — but the experience wasn’t possible until a new store opened its doors.

Bargain Grocery is on River Street just north of Hoosick Street, which puts it just outside what’s considered downtown. It sits, then, on the southern edge of North Central — a neighborhood marked by poverty and disinvestment, a place that, like much of Troy, has long lacked a full-service supermarket.

Bargain Grocery isn’t a conventional grocery store, but it should go a long way to filling the need. Most importantly, it sells significant quantities of fresh produce purchased from local farms and wholesalers. Its packaged foods are salvaged items purchased (mostly) at a low price and resold on the cheap.

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That makes Bargain Grocery something like a supermarket version of Ollie’s Bargain Outlet. Much of the food would otherwise be headed to a landfill, either because its packaging is superficially damaged, its expiration date is looming or........

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