For the past year or more VFC has been focused on a single development strategy: aiming to raise more than one million dollars to open a modest store of approximately 5,000 square feet in west Vancouver. This is a fine plan, if one can pull it off, but it is important to appreciate that there are other ways to open a food cooperative, and to understand the great variety of options, not all of which look like a small Whole Foods. The cooperative economic model is a diverse one and there are a variety of cooperatives, including worker-owned cooperatives (such as City Bikes in Portland), producer's cooperatives (such as Tillamook Cheese, Ocean Spray and Blue Diamond Almonds), and consumer cooperatives (such as REI or the various Portland food co-ops). Even within the general model of food cooperatives there are a variety of models to fit different communities and stages of development. Buying Clubs All three of the surviving Portland-area food cooperatives began as buying clubs, where working-class people gathered to purchase nutritious foods in bulk, whether for a better price or to guarantee availability. Many buying clubs start out in someone's garage or on a porch, but others then expand to a small retail space. The Daily Market (formerly The Sweet Onion) is a food co-op that began at about the same time as the Vancouver Food Cooperative and which currently operates out of a storefront at 508 East Main Street in Walla Walla, Washington. Find them online at
http://www.dailymarket.coop Another example of this is Montana's Missoula Community Market at
http://www.missoulacommunitymarket.org Limited Retail One click up from the home or storefront buying club is a limited retail establishment which may serve as a drop-point for CSA farms or a buying club, but also keeps a limited number of retail items in stock. The Grower's Market at 454 Willamette Street in Eugene is such a place, open ten hours each week for customers, and staffed entirely by volunteers. This is economically feasible for Grower's Market because their building functions as leased office space during the rest of the week. Find them online at
http://growersmarket.net Owner-Only Owner-only cooperatives require that one be a member or owner to shop there, and one of the most famous is Brooklyn's Park Slope Co-Op, where every member is a working member, without exception. Average shifts are about three hours, every four weeks. The advantage of this is to encourage scheduled visits by all shoppers and to eliminate almost all labor costs. Find them online at
http://foodcoop.com and check out member information such as the owner forums and member handbook. Mobile Market The mobile market strategy is not cost-effective, but has been used in underserved areas such as Oakland, California, and in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Basically a large vehicle is converted into a rolling grocery store, and moves from neighborhood to neighborhood, much as a bookmobile might for areas without libraries. By focusing on a few key items such as bulk dry goods and fresh vegetables, mobile markets are sometimes used as an outreach tool. Oklahoma Model The Oklahoma Food Cooperative is similar to the mobile market, with an emphasis on selling only local products through a series of established routes which both pick up and distribute food. Most ordering is done online, with designated routes, pick-up times and locations, in a model similar to a CSA. You can get a glimpse of this model online at
http://www.oklahomafood.coop/locations.php Small Retail By small retail I mean physically small stores, those with limited hours or both. Generally less than 1500 square feet, this model is popular in small towns where the population _base_ does not justify the cost of maintaining staff at all hours all week. The Yelm Food Co-Op is one I would consider small retail, open five days a week for nine hours each day. Find them online at
http://yelmcoop.com Large Retail By large retail I mean physically large stores or stores which are open normal grocery hours, usually 9am-9pm seven days a week. All of the Portland food cooperatives are what I would consider large retail, grossing $3-$30 million in sales each year. Some cooperatives such as PCC Natural Markets in the Seattle area are very large retail, with nine separate locations viewable at
http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/locations So What? The main thing in opening a successful store is fitting the strategy to the community and the skill level of those who are building the store and who will use it. While it is lovely to imagine that every neighborhood might have its own miniature Whole Foods, that is not always the way to bet, and not to let the perfect become the enemy of the good.
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