This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

United Market KC is the full-service grocery store at 31st Street and Prospect Avenue in the Linwood Shopping Center, opened in May 2026 by first-time operator Anthony Estrada in the space a Sun Fresh store had vacated the previous August.

Description

United Market KC is a full-service grocery store occupying the anchor space of the Linwood Shopping Center at Linwood Boulevard and Prospect Avenue on Kansas City’s East Side.12 It opened to the public on May 20, 2026, with a ribbon-cutting that drew shoppers who lined up hours in advance and filled the shopping-center parking lot.213

The store carries produce, meat, deli and packaged grocery, publishes a weekly ad and digital coupons through its own website, and operates a rewards account and mobile app.45 It is open daily from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.6

The opening is significant beyond the storefront: the location had been without a grocery store since the previous operator, a Sun Fresh market backed by millions of dollars of Kansas City public investment, closed in August 2025 amid what its CEO described to KCUR as safety concerns on Prospect Avenue.7 In January 2026 the city announced that United Market KC would take over the location; the city owns the building.8 Local coverage framed the reopening as the end of a months-long food gap for the surrounding neighborhoods.21

The store’s logo depicts two faces — a sun and a moon united in a single image — which the owner has said represents the store’s name and mission.2

Ownership and history

Anthony Estrada is the owner and operator. He told KCTV5 he has worked in the grocery industry for 35 years, beginning by pushing carts at age 16, and that United Market KC is the first store he has had the opportunity to operate himself.2 He also told Fox4 that work on the project began in January 2026.9 KCTV5 additionally reported that Estrada serves as a part-time police officer for the City of Roeland Park, and that he expects that experience to bear on the security challenges that affected the previous operator; and that he has secured an agreement with Kansas City, Kansas, to reopen the former Merc Co-op at 501 Minnesota Avenue.2

Estrada held open interviews and hired 50 workers in four hours, many of them residents of the surrounding neighborhood, according to KCTV5.2

The Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control’s primary alcohol licence file lists the licensee at 3110 Prospect as United Market KC LLC.10

The terms of the operating agreement with the city; ownership structure of United Market KC LLC beyond the licensee name; wholesale supply arrangement; whether the Kansas City, Kansas store has opened.

Services

  • Full-line grocery: fresh produce, fresh and frozen meat (the August 2026 weekly ad advertised fresh bone-in assorted pork chops at $1.79/lb and frozen bone-in chicken thighs), deli and packaged goods.5
  • Weekly ad and digital coupons.4
  • Rewards account and installable mobile/web app.4

Full department list (bakery, pharmacy, floral, check-cashing) — not published on the store’s site.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. La’Nita Brooks, “United Market opens in Kansas City’s Linwood Shopping Center, bringing fresh food back to Prospect,” KSHB 41, May 2026. URL ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Gabbi Lumma, “United Market opens at 31st and Prospect, restoring grocery access under new management,” KCTV5, May 20, 2026. URL ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. “United Market KC begins new chapter for Prospect community,” The Kansas City Star, May 2026. URL ↩

  4. “United Market Home,” United Market KC (official site). URL ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. “Weekly Ad,” United Market KC (prices good August 2026). URL ↩ ↩2

  6. “Store Info / Locations,” United Market KC. URL ↩

  7. “CEO of shuttered Kansas City grocery store blames safety concerns on Prospect Avenue,” KCUR Up To Date, August 18, 2025. URL ↩

  8. “Mayor says new grocery store will replace closed Sun Fresh,” KCTV5, January 20, 2026. URL ↩

  9. “United Market grocery store to open on Prospect Avenue,” FOX4KC, 2026. URL ↩

  10. “Missouri Primary Alcohol Licenses,” Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control open dataset (dataset id d9fr-pncw), retrieved August 26, 2026 — licensee “UNITED MARKET KC LLC,” 3110 Prospect, Kansas City, MO 64129. URL ↩

See also

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/united-market-kc · record updated 2026-08-26