I'm not able to attend the General Meeting scheduled for next week, but
would like to contribute my little bit.
Food co-ops all over the U.S. are struggling to survive these days, in
large part because the mainstream grocery stores have moved into the
"organic" niche that co-ops had to themselves for so many years. You see
the same thing here in Moscow. Organic produce and packaged products are
available at both Tidymans and Rosauers. With the higher volume these
stores turn over in all products, and the ability to spread their overhead
over many more products, the co-op just can't compete if this remains the
co-op "niche". Yesterday I was in the co-op and was dismayed to see that
the prices on organic produce were all substantially higher than those at
Tidyman's, and there was very little "local grown, but maybe not organic"
alternatives to choose from.
>From Michael Porter's biz lit, the advice to the co-op at this juncture
would be to pick one of the three to specialize in; low cost, speed of
delivery, or special quality. Special quality could be as it has been
"organic", or you could move to a different niche, perhaps termed
"community-building". In this new niche, the emphasis is on the shopping
(and volunteering) experience; the special events to which members are
invited; and a focus on local products on the shelves.
This is my suggestion: That the co-op change their emphasis to one that
explicitly is focused on community-building.
Thanks,
Gens Johnson
>Hi all,
>I'm writing to you as the Chairperson of the Moscow Food Coop Board of
>Directors. This message is also being copied to each member of the BoD.
>
>I've been a lurking subscriber of this list for several months, and am
>definitely supportive of this list, and of what this list tries to
>accomplish; that is, create dialogue within the community for the sake of
>maintaining and improving our community. With that said, I need your
>input concerning a matter crucial to the survival of the Moscow Food Coop.
>I looked at the subscriber list for this group and noticed that many of
>you are also members of the Coop, which means that many of you should have
>somewhat of a vested interest in the Coop's success. To cut to the chase,
>the Coop has been losing money for the last year and a half, and if it
>doesn't turn around soon, the Coop stands a good chance of going
>belly-up. Our sales are not meeting our expenses, and like any other
>business, we can't go on forever under those circumstances. For several
>months now we've been trying to figure out a way to stem the negative flow.
>At our last Board meeting (last night, actually...), we decided to reverse
>the recent change in discount policy for members and non-members.
>
>Perhaps a bit of history would help
>here. A year and a half ago, the Coop was making money and the discount
>structure went like this: Members paid sticker price for all products,
>non-members paid a surcharge of 7%. To avoid the surcharge, all a
>non-member needed to do was to join the Coop. Apparently, people were
>dissatisfied with that discounting structure, and so it was changed to the
>current structure, which is 2% discount for members and sticker price for
>non-members. Are ya with me so far...? Last year, the Coop lost $11,000,
>and we're well on our way to doubling that loss this year. So. What to
>do?? The BoD decided to remove the 2% discount for members, and to add a
>10% surcharge to all non-member purchases. Some people are happy. Some
>people are not happy. Some people are furiously beside themselves. What
>are we gonna do? Do you have any thoughtful suggestions that would help
>us resolve this crisis issue? Remember, we can't continue to lose money
>like this. There are several new and exciting things that the Coop hopes
>to do, but nothing can be done unless and until the red ink stops flowing.
>
>I hope this message gets the juices flowing in some of the list members;
>we at the Coop could sure use some constructive input. I'm looking
>forward to reading your responses here. Thanks.
>
>Alan.
>
>Alan Lifton (208) 885-7260 Office
>Professor, Visual Communications (208) 885-6450 FAX
>School of Communication lifton@uidaho.edu
>University of Idaho http://www.uidaho.edu/~lifton
>Moscow, ID 83844 Blood type "O"
> "Television isn't a medium; it's a small" -Anon-