There are a number of characteristics that can add to or detract from a natural food co-op store’s opportunity for success. We’ve covered location and site characteristics to be considered in...
Using cross-functional store teams to plan promotions can be a simple way to create effective promotional programs that are fun and engaging for your customers, position the co-op as an exciting...
There are always lots of reasons not to take a risk—even when it’s the right thing to do. The Moscow Food Co-op (Moscow, Ida.) recently took one when we launched a month-long campaign...
John McWade, founder and creative director of Before & After magazine says "design looks easier than it is, and it’s more important than it looks." This is especially true for your...
We sometimes describe the Domestic Fair Trade Association (DFTA) as a movement of movements. We count among our members farmers and their organizations, farmworkers and their...
What started as an exploration of interest in Company Shops Market in August 2007 led to a very quiet soft opening on May 21, 2011, in downtown Burlington, N.C. Folks from other co-ops, our staff...
In September 2010, at the Fair Trade Futures Conference in Boston, Santiago Paz, co-director of CEPICAFE, a small coffee farmer cooperative in northern Peru, shook the audience with his...
Declaring 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives received a rare unanimous vote from the UN General Assembly. This declaration offers a timely opportunity to promote cooperatives as a proven...
"Cooperative enterprises build a better world." This has been adopted as the official slogan of "2012: International Year of Cooperatives"—a United Nations declaration and a global...
In March 2006, about 30 people came to a meeting at the Little Grill Collective restaurant in Harrisonburg, Va., to talk about starting a cooperative. The Little Grill had opened a 600-square-foot...
Good designers can cost anywhere between $25 an hour to hundreds, but don’t make the mistake of only looking at designers in your price range. Luckily,...
