Cooperative grocery stores have been on a boom-then-bust cycle since they first emerged after the Great Depression.
And the cycle at the moment is back to boom. As more Americans look for more ways to control their spending – as well as where their food comes from – small grocers that are owned by their “member” shoppers and focus on local and natural foods are back in vogue.
Tacoma is no exception. On Friday, after years of effort, a food cooperative had its soft opening on Sixth Avenue, the home of the former Neighborhood Market. The co-op will focus on locally grown foods. It will celebrate its grand opening Sept. 10.
Around the country roughly 300 cooperatives already run 330 stores, with at least another 250 under development, everywhere from New Orleans to Fairbanks, Alaska, according to Stuart Reid, executive director of Food Co-op Initiative, a nonprofit that provides resources and support for organizing groups.
During the past two to three years alone, 10 to 12 new stores have opened each year, according to Cooperative Grocer magazine, which keeps an online directory of food co-ops.
“The economy is certainly part of the reason, but another part of the reason is Americans are looking for ways to own and control the means of providing the services they want,” says Andrea Cumpston, a spokeswoman for the National Cooperative Business Association. “For example, in the food co-op industry they’re looking to be able to own the store that provides them with their local foods and to know and trust where those foods are coming from.”
That’s what keeps Nickie Dymon, 47, shopping for her family at City Market Onion River Co-op in Burlington, Vt. She also appreciates that she can save money — and lessen her ecological footprint — by buying in bulk, and filling her own recycled bottles and bags with coffee, laundry detergent, cooking oils, soy sauce and maple syrup.
“I buy all my fruits and vegetables here and a lot of my groceries here,” she said recently while shopping in the produce section, which this time of year offers locally grown fingerling potatoes, blueberries, green and yellow string beans, tomatoes and baby spinach.
The first food co-ops grew out of the Great Depression, but most did not survive, says Reid. The next wave came during the 1970s, fueled largely by interest in natural foods otherwise unavailable at mainstream grocers. But Reid says many of those failed, too, in part because they lacked sophisticated business operations.
Joining a food co-op generally entails paying a one-time fee that averages about $150, though payment plans are available with much lower fees, and some co-ops offer waivers for low-income shoppers. For that, members own a share of the co-op, might receive a share in the profits, and get to vote for things such as who sits on the store’s board of directors.
“It’s a very democratic type of organization. And then when the business is profitable the profits go back to those owners who are the people that shop in the store and it’s usually done based on how much they patronize the store,” Reid said.
As co-ops have evolved, they’ve shed some of their old image. A focus on local and artisanal goods — including locally raised or produced meats, cheeses, beers and wines — as well as the addition of delis and prepared foods have attracted a whole new food-centered generation of shoppers.
