East Aurora: Early, Impactful Investment Led to Opening Co-op
East Aurora Co-op Market East Aurora, NY Founded: 2010 Opened: June 2016 Number of members: 1,280 Number of employees: 25 Member investment: $200 Retail square feet: 4,445 East Aurora Food Co-op in upstate New York [...]
The Slack App: Weaver Street Market’s Internal Communication Transformation Story
The roll out right before Thanksgiving turned out better than expected. Having a single centralized spot where everyone could see what was happening in real time was an incredible improvement to the status quo experience [...]
Are You Ready to Compete? A crowded marketplace is the new reality
By Mel Braverman, Nicole Klimek, Jeanie Wells 184 May-June 2016 In the back of our minds we knew that [insert name of competitor here] was coming. It was only a matter of time before grocery [...]
Beefing Up Your Marketing Plan: Making sure yours is still relevant
By Nicole Klimek, Joy Rust 184 May-June 2016 As competition creeps up to #1 on the “food co-op worry list,” many co-ops find themselves wondering how they can combat declining sales while not investing an [...]
Ambitious Community Outreach Yields Big Results
Common Ground Food Co-op Urbana, IL Year founded: 1974 Number of members: 5,800 Member equity: $60 Number of employees: 95 Retail square feet: 8,000 Common Ground Food Co-op in Urbana, Ill. has been one of [...]
Good Reporting: Helping boards understand workplace conditions
By Michael Healy 184 May-June 2016 Co-ops bring to life their member-owners’ common values, and for most co-ops these include a desire for the co-op to be a great workplace. In the event that your [...]
Governance Considerations in Multi-Store Co-ops
We’re in a position not unlike the years after WWII when the small grocery cooperatives began to fold in the wake of full service supermarkets with vast parking lots. Jerry Voorhis, former president of The [...]
Board Decisions Between Meetings
As a general practice, boards should avoid making decisions between regular meetings. A large part of the value of having a board in a leadership position is that good decisions can come from incorporating many [...]
When and Who to Hire (or Contract) for Startups
As a new co-op project progresses through the 3 stages of the development process and the workload and complexity of the co-op development process increases, founding team and board members often wonder when to hire [...]