Alysen Land, general manager, Ozark Natural Foods: “Bill has helped our cooperative grow and continually improve. Bill has helped me weather difficult times in my career, and has proven to me again and again that he is a good friend and fellow cooperator.” Jeanie Wells, operations, expansions, and startup consultant, CDS Consulting Co-op: “I first met and worked with Bill in the 1990s and [...]
By Ben Sandel 156 September - October - 2011 PDF download of article: pdf of article In March 2006, about 30 people came to a meeting at the Little Grill Collective restaurant in Harrisonburg, Va., to talk about starting a cooperative. The Little Grill had opened a 600-square-foot health food store (called The Little Store) in a rundown plaza on the poorer side of [...]
By Debbie Suassuna 156 September - October - 2011 There are a number of characteristics that can add to or detract from a natural food co-op store’s opportunity for success. We’ve covered location and site characteristics to be considered in planning a natural foods co-op store. This article discusses facility characteristics: size and shape of the facility, its layout on the site, and the [...]
By Debbie Suassuna 155 July - August - 2011 When you are evaluating a natural food co-op store location, there are a number of characteristics that can add to, or detract from, the store’s ability to generate sales. This is the second in a series of articles oriented toward discussing the types of issues to be considered in locating a natural food co-op store. [...]
Bill Gessner likes working with people, and most of the time, you’ll find him wherever groups are creating plans for the future. Throughout his career, Bill has worked with hundreds of food co-ops and many development organizations. It is not an exaggeration to say that his ability to work with diverse groups of people has helped the food co-op sector grow and thrive. He [...]
By Debbie Suassuna 149 July - August - 2010 In order to improve overall sales performance and compete effectively against other food stores, food co-ops can choose from several types of market research tools. Generally speaking, the results derived from implementing one of these research tools will enable a food co-op to employ two somewhat parallel marketing strategies— market segmentation and market differentiation. Differentiation [...]
Good stories often start in the middle of the action. That’s where the good research you can use to build sales starts, too. Getting data on your current customers always starts with one primary activity: their shopping habits in your store. With that information you can validate your hunches and learn many things you didn’t know about your customers. As retailers look at ways [...]
UPDATED: March 2016
Rochdale Pioneers Toad Lane Store Founded: 1844 Number of members: 28 founding members Equity investment:Two weeks wages down, with 10 weeks total investment Retail square footage: Tiny On the longest night of the year, the founders of the consumer cooperative movement opened their grocery store in 1844 in Rochdale, England with little fanfare and five items for sale. Their store was lit with candles, [...]
By Bill Gessner 134 Jan - Feb - 2008 Food co-ops expanding from one to two stores must navigate a challenging and perilous course. This article will explore those challenges and obstacles and suggest a course of planning and implementation that increases the likelihood of success. Food co-ops historically have had limited (but increasing) success operating multiple stores. In 1997 there were just six [...]
