a new Kind of Local Food Store

Hi Donn,

I see one of the docs at the bottom of the page is a Coop. Were you planning on running the store as a coop? There is one in our college town of Moscow – with a bit smaller pop. than 25,000 but there is a strong following developed over at least 20 yrs. The coop membership gets you reduced pricing on foods and they market local foods when they can get them. There still is a thriving seasonal farmer’s market in Moscow as well.

One thing I do want to note is how hard the Coop works to get people’s attention (students included). They might have a “local food fair” in the spring/summer or, one that I’m sure you’d appreciate, a cheese tasting with cheeses of various types and their makers on hand – they even had a little “rating card” so you could remember what you liked. The line was out the door for that one.

Probably not a lot of help but good luck.

One thing the community has talked about but never moved on is building a “commercial community kitchen” – where folks can come and create/cook their foodstuff for resale without having to build their own “commercial kitchen”. I know some guys up in N Idaho got federal $$ to build something similar for processing berries (raspberries, blueberries and huckleberries) into jams, syrups and who knows what else. Sorry – I got off the topic.

Binghamton’s not so very different from Cortland, and my main memory of the co-op there was years of fatigue, long meetings, several relocations, and ultimate failure, resulting in the co-op morphing into a small health food store owned by the one member who really took a serious interest in it.

As a co-op, though, the place always looked down in the mouth, as if it really wasn’t sure if it was emotionally ready to move out of members’ basements. And it ultimately didn’t have the moxie to turn itself into a quasi-whole-foods-supermarket like some other co-ops did, e.g., Burlington, Ithaca.

Donn, perhaps your topic isn’t co-ops per se, but even if you are aiming to make a local food store with a moderate price point, they are similar in terms of challenges. The chief thing in your favor is the changing times–arrangements requiring loyalty, collaboration, and sharing tend to thrive in times of adversity and scarcity, even here in the U.S.A. They tend to fall apart in times of affluence. So maybe the co-op, local general store, is poised to make a comeback. I guess if it were me I wouldn’t be ready to put much money at risk, though.

Donn,

I think that this is a good idea. It is hard to say with the economy, but I have a feeling that if we(all small farmers) don’t run with the local food movement now it will be hard to keep the momentum going if/when things get worse.

Your idea reminds me of an art gallery in Salem, NY. It is an artist/craftperson co-op, like your farmer coop idea. The artists charge them selves a consignment fee to cover the cost of rent/lights/heat and they take turns playing shop keeper. Often someone will bring a little something to work on and they hold get to know the artist type events.

I like your idea of it being a farmer co-op, not a customer co-op. Like in a CSA the customers have to realize that this is not a “meet all your needs grocery, ” but rather a market place for seasonal local products in a central location with better hours than a farmers’ market. Products will vary with the season and each week could bring something new and different to replace that which has past.

The volunteers will be rather critical. They need to have a basic knowledge of the products that they are selling, be engaging and have some good salesmanship. I have experienced varied help at farmers’ markets and there is nothing worse than the person that sits and hides from the customers only to say “I don’t know” when someone finally gets their attention. This type is never asked to help again. We have a couple stellar market helpers that also help with the harvest so they have good knowledge of the product. They are also the type of people that you wish you could bottle their happiness and positive energy and sell it, their good attitudes are contagious and sales are always good on days that they help.

I have a couple other thoughts, but they will have to wait, got to catch a plane to NY

happy road less taken,

Erika

@Robert MoonShadow 6467 wrote:

I agree with Erika; the sales help will be very important. Not just their attitudes & general knowledge, but their availability. But this goes beyond just marketing basics; as in most direct-marketing, it’ll depend on relationship building – not just customers/seller, but in seller/seller.
The most helpful (and hardest to answer) question to ask is simply “What’s in it for me?” –> from a customer’s viewpoint AND from a seller/producer’s. Why should I, as a customer, pick your store? Alternatively, why should I, as a producer sell at your store? I don’t mean it as a negative attitude, but positive… if the answers are right, you’ll be overwhelmed with custiomers – and with sellers with good attitudes. If not, you’ll be underwhelmed… and have only your things on the shelves. My personal hardship is explaining my vision to others = what’s obvious to me in my mind’s eye, isn’t neccesarily so to others.

I have a good friend that opened a coffee shop in a small town (not a trendy, touristy place … just a town that had been 5,000 people 15 to 20 years before, but had grown to probably 25,000 because it was less than an hours drive from a big city) probably 13 or 14 years ago, long before Starbucks would even look twice at a community like that. His shop was profitable from the very first day, but after about 2 & 1/2 years he sold out. The problem? He could graph his sales day in and day out and the days that he was not in the shop the volume would only be about 65 to 70% of what it was when he was there. At first he thought the employees were stealing from him, but the inventory closely matched the cash register. Finally he started asking the regular customers what the issue might be and they quickly told him that on the days he was there they would order a cup of Joe, chew some fat with him and order up again. On the days he was not there they would buy a cup & keep on moving because they really didn’t have anything in common with the kids behind the counter. When he realized that he could make a nice living at his shop, but he was going to have to continue working about 70 to 80 hours a week to do it he baled out.

From what I can discern of your concept, Donn, it sounds very interesting. Please keep us updated as this progresses.

You know,there is someone in our town (<4,000) that is opening a "Produce Market" and they made point of saying that it is NOT a Co-op, which I thought was sort of odd. Not sure of any of the details as to how they plan to operate, but they have invested in some nice facilities just a couple of blocks from the downtown square.

I think we all recognize that projects like this are the direction things are headed. Collaboration instead of competition, local differentiation instead of corporate homogeneity. But when personally involved, it’s important not just to do the right thing, but not to do it too soon. Always a tough call.

An example I read somewhere was of someone seeing Robert Fulton’s steamboat Claremont in 1810 or whenever it was, then drawing the conclusion that steam was the future, and investing their life savings in steamships. But steam wouldn’t really take hold on the seas for another fifty years. Not wrong, just right too soon.

This is not to suggest that Cortland won’t support such a store for another 50 years, but rather that it is all in the timing: weighing the energy, capital, and good intent available, the costs and obstacles involved, and the degree to which the general public is ready. Donn, I think you’re as good a judge of these things as anyone.

Ask and ye shall receive. Even sometimes before ye ask. Erika thank you for your last post on the Alarming Law Proposed thread. “Community Supported Agriculture” was in the link you attached. I guess I was off base. But now I know. Or at least I am closer to the answer.

Thanks Again.
Larry

I was curious if there was anything new to report on your community store. Were you able to get anything started this year?