By: Carolee Colter & Jeanie Wells When an organization is going through rapid change, roles within the organization change, too, and not always in a consciously thought-through manner. Expansions can result in forming new layers of positions. For example, opening a second store creates the necessity for new approaches to buying. Relocating to a new facility with a much-expanded food service leads to [...]
If there’s one thing retailers know, it’s that they have to expect surprises and mishaps as a matter of course in business. Many things can go wrong in a flash, and unfortunately, are not that unusual: power outages, organized shoplifting, workplace injury. The safety and security of the store’s physical infrastructure, as [...]
Mississippi Market St. Paul, MN Year founded: 1979 Equity investment: $90 Number of members: 15,500 Number of employees: 210 Retail locations: Selby Ave., West 7th, and Dayton’s Bluff opening Sept. 2015 It started with the results of an employee satisfaction survey. In 2012, Mississippi Market’s management learned some staff questioned the co-op’s growth plans, and they perceived it was having a negative impact on [...]
By Bill Gessner 178 May-June 2015 The collective progress in collaboration that the food co-op sector has achieved over the past decade has been significant and inspiring. “Cooperation among cooperatives,” through the Cooperative Grocers Associations and other vehicles, is building a strong, powerful momentum. An underlying core value that has supported this collaboration, but has rarely been articulated or recognized, is a strong spirit [...]
Kelly Wiseman addresses the question: what do you do when the competition is planning to move in next door? At Bozeman Food Co-op, they decided to take a hard look at their operations and marketing to make sure they were meeting customer needs and injecting excitement into their store. “We looked at every angle of operations and asked, what could we possibly do to [...]
By Mel Braverman, Jeanie Wells 177 March-April 2015 Almost every cooperative retail grocery is feeling increased competition in its community. Twenty years ago, merely having featured products consistently available was enough for co-ops to be successful, but this is no longer an option. In the last few years, not only has the conventional industry become smarter operators of its natural/organic sets, we have also [...]
By Michael Healy When it comes to numbers and data, context matters. The context in which we place particular numbers helps us make meaning of those numbers, and this is particularly important when we are talking about financial data. Over many generations, managers and accountants have developed financial reporting tools that help them do their jobs. Balance sheets, income/expense (aka profit/loss) statements, and [...]
By Thane Joyal, Mark Goehring 173 July - August 2014 Loss prevention is a key piece of the retail grocery business. Co-op managers are aware of this at their level and manage against it every day, but everyone in the cooperative needs to pay attention to the possibility. Board members: don’t be complacent. There are myriad ways to steal from a grocery store: at the [...]
By Michael Feiner, Paul Feiner 170 January - February 2014 Food co-ops may be some of the best-intentioned enterprises across the retail spectrum. They are guided by core values of shared responsibility, environmental stewardship, support for more equitable communities, and conscious consumption; it’s hard to imagine a more mindful and ethical social venture. Yet even the best intentions do not make a co-op immune [...]
