Traditionally a time of community events and gathering together to celebrate the bounty of the season’s agricultural harvest, the Thanksgiving holiday is a great opportunity for food co-ops to stand out and highlight what they have to offer! Here are a few seasonal suggestions to help make your produce holiday season a success. Planning. Having the right amount of all the seasonal staples in [...]
In a lot of ways our work speaks for itself. The data supports an assertion that cooperation produces stronger happier communities, local economies, food systems and shoppers. Bonnie Hudspeth, Neighboring Food Co-op Associations Manager of Member Programs, shares a ton of powerful data points about the impact that food co-ops have in the Northeast and points out opportunities that we can seize on to [...]
So much of the critical work of movement-building is getting the word out there to those who are looking for what we offer. As the Executive Director of Neighboring Food Co-ops Association, Erbin Crowell spend a lot of his time getting the message out about cooperatives. Here he shares with you some of his tips and offers up some regional co-op data for the [...]
Back when I worked in distribution, the warehousers complained that marketing promised too much to the customer, while marketing grumbled that the warehouse always said no. It’s the same in retail. When conducting employee surveys I often hear comments from grocery or wellness like, “Marketing is trying to run everything but we’re the ones who actually talk with the customers,” and comments from marketing like, “We’re [...]
An Interview with Paul Feiner As a Loss Prevention Certified (LPC) professional, Paul Feiner works full time as Store Support Manager at Sacramento Natural Foods in Sacramento, CA. On the side, he and his brother Michael manage a consulting business that helps small businesses develop proactive loss prevention programs to mitigate loss and maximize safety and security. Recently I interviewed Paul about safety training [...]
