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 [...]
Looking to the Cooperative Principles, it is clear that cooperatives are by design set up to be empowering organizations. From the first principle to the last, from open membership to concern for community, all aspects of the cooperative’s control of resources are to be a model of trust and transparency. This is achieved when the people involved at all levels know their roles and [...]
Lexington Cooperative Market Buffalo, N.Y. Year founded: 1971 Number of members: 6,500 Equity investment: $80 Number of staff: 75 Retail square feet: 4,500 For many years the leadership at Lexington Cooperative Market in Buffalo, N.Y., knew their discount program was a problem. The co-op struggled with profitability, and in 2007 concerns about the co-op’s viability grew. The idea of taking away a long-term popular [...]
CoCoFiSt Common Cooperative Financial Statements, a CDS program for improving cooperative performance. CoCoBud A budgeting feature that, based on historical data, projects sales, margins, and payroll by department, as well as income statements, balance sheets, cash flows, ratios, capital budgets and loans for the next four quarters. A manager can then change assumptions to change the projections. CoCoGap This illustrates how much more profit [...]
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 [...]
Some economists theorize that business activity runs in a cycle where the benefits of greater collaboration are embraced, but eventually shift toward greater individualism. When the self-interest model leaves too few with tangible benefits, the cooperative approach to business resurges. And the “we/me” cycle begins anew. As we look to restructure our global economies, messages of working together to rebuild our communities have been [...]
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, [...]
We hear a lot about “hope” and “change” these days, but how does our vision compare with the kind of lasting change brought about by the humble men and women of Rochdale, England, a century and a half ago? For the Rochdale Pioneers, the founders of our modern cooperative movement, cooperation gave them real tools to change a dire economic situation. Beset by indebtedness, [...]
Wheatsville Food Co-op Austin, Texas Founded: 1976 Number of members: 9,000 Equity investment:$55 per household Number of staff: 80 Retail square feet:5,100 One of Walden Swanson’s first co-op endeavors was to manage the Wheatsville Food Co-op. As a native Texan who went to business school at the University of Texas in Austin, his interest in economic and social justice issues deepened. He’d always felt [...]
Last month the food cooperative sector was unanimously thrilled to learn that CDS consultants Walden Swanson and Kate Sumberg are to be inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame at a ceremony in April 2008. Recommendation letters poured into the hands of the selection committee at the Cooperative Development Foundation from food co-op leaders as well as people in the housing, finance, wholesale and agricultural [...]
