I recently moved from the Big City to a Small Town and the weekend after I signed on the house I joined a group at their first meeting to launch an initiative with the aim of opening a member-owned food co-op in the sleepy small town's "downtown" area.
I have zero co-op experience despite living near a successful one in my Big City neighborhood (and feel slightly guilty about this, as an acquaintance was integral to its formation). I've gotten a sense from some of the members of the Small Town initiative of what a co-op is like, but I'm interested to know if anyone here regularly shops at one and, if so, why? What do you look for in a grocery store in general, and what makes the food co-op experience appealing to you?
This is an informal conversation starter, not at all part of any kind of survey, etc. Just curious to know if anyone in this community might have some insight into the subject that could inform and potentially guide my work with the group.
We belong to People's Food Co-op of Ann Arbor. We basically joined because of the discount, quality food, and we like supporting a local community business. They also have a good bulk food section. I don't really know much about the workings of it, however.
We used to belong to the PFCo-op in Ann Arbor too. They have a great hot bar that we would each lunch at often. Though there's only so many times a week I can eat sautéed Kale. It's got a decent selection and its always an interesting scene. Plus it's right at that point where downtown becomes Kerrytown, I like that section of Ann Arbor. We also frequented the co-op in Ypsilanti which was smaller and the one where we live now is enormous. I only mention this because co-ops are not all created equal. Overall though, there is more of a sense of community with the co-op and you are supporting something that I think is often worth supporting. Good luck hiss, I hope the move has been a smooth transition for you.
Thanks, this is interesting. We've been getting in touch with some of the more established regional co-ops as well as other start-ups in the area, not sure if we're connected with People's Food Co-op but they must be doing something right :) Good point re: all co-ops not created equal. Seems like the standard practice is to build to suit your community, and most co-ops are going up in "established" neighborhoods/towns where growth isn't really a factor. We know exactly how many members we need to be sustainable and it's pretty much a hard goal, but it wouldn't necessarily be the same for a smaller town (e.g. DeKalb, IL, where the local food co-op has been around since the 70's and never in a space larger than a couple rail cars stacked on top of each other). Education of the community also seems to be an important factor, as indicated by how many successful co-ops are in college towns. Our community has a 50%+ college education rate but (as I may have noted in another, unrelated, post here) that's bound to change over time. I wonder how we'll fare with a (relatively/marginally) sluggish economy and the lack of an 'anchor' like a University (although there is a much smaller one just ten miles away). --- The move has been as smooth as it can be. Still waiting to tackle some big work on the house, but edging closer every day. Really lucked out with the 'studio' space not needing much/any work - other than updating the outlets, eventually - and having the ability to go in there and work on music, play some records, and just relax. After my girlfriend fell ill last year I created outlets for myself, some constructive - like comedy - and others not so much (gambling, drinking too much, etc). Having the ability to just tune focus on music, as well as joining a band, has been a tremendous help.
Sounds like you've got a lot of cool music making to look forward to. Hope the studio turns out nicely and that your girlfriend is doing well.
I shopped for about a year and a half at the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Co-Op on the DC/MD border. I loved the friendly small-town atmosphere, how laid-back everything was, how I knew all the cashiers, the healthy food selection, how they sourced what they could locally (even that they didn't carry foods that were wildly out of season), and how well they paid their employees. It was a community staple and donated to local charities and initiatives. Yes, I paid more than I would have at the Safeway down the street, but it made me feel like a better citizen and it wasn't as faceless as the Safeway.
We belong to one in Iowa City. We do probably 80% of our shopping there. The thing I like most about it is they do a lot of the legwork for you. They carry mostly local meats and produce, and only buy from vendors that follow certain guidelines. So as horrible as this sounds, it allows us to be a bit lazy. We know all the food there is good food, produced in a way that is as good for the environment as possible. They also don't carry all kinds of produce year round, which helps us eat with the seasons. This is surprisingly fun. It makes it exciting when something you haven't gotten to eat for a while shows up on the stand. Downsides, as I see them, are overall the prices are higher (due to the high quality of the food, not because they are charging a premium). For us this isn't really a concern as our household consists on of myself and my husband, but if you had a family and a limited budget it could be hard to eat this way all the time. Also sometimes you just want a frozen pizza or something. We have to go somewhere else for that kind of thing. Of course, as another pointed out, not all co-ops follow the same principles. We get a dividend check every year and we get to vote on big questions like whether it should move to a larger building, but ultimately we are not super involved with the co-op side of things. Ultimately, ours is just a nice place to shop. Many of the cashiers knows us by sight or name. It's comfortable. That's why we go there.