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An archive of Cooperative Grocer magazine articles going back to 1985.

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Title Post datesort icon Issue
Carrots in the Classroom
by

It sounds remarkably like a late-night TV ad: “In just minutes a day, you can fulfill your outreach needs, please your core members, attract mid-level consumers, educate small children, and make...

21 Jan 2009 #117 March - April - 2005
Co-op as Store Becomes Co-op as Community
by Mark Goehring

We can no longer (verb)_____ in isolation. Try these verbs: Learn. Vision. Plan. Invest. Be. Then try your own! Nearly three years ago, the board of directors of the Brattleboro Food Co-op...

21 Jan 2009 #117 March - April - 2005
Brand Readiness Hits the Road
by Ellen Michel

The word branding sometimes conjures images of bucking broncos, rodeos where livestock are marked with an indelible sign. Indeed, branding with a hot iron speaks to the rambunctious nature of...

21 Jan 2009 #117 March - April - 2005
Monitoring the Manager
by Mark Goehring

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is commonly known to directors and managers. It is a dimension open to interpretation—potentially as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is...

21 Jan 2009 #123 March - April - 2006
Growing New Mexico's Co-op Economy
by C.E. Pugh

La Montañita’s two co-op locations in Albuquerque, New Mexico will soon be joined by two additional locations in the communities of Gallup and Santa Fe. Our Nob Hill store, located at its current...

21 Jan 2009 #117 March - April - 2005
Just Food Hits the Ground Running
by Stuart Reid

At 7:00 p.m. on December 15, Just Food opened its doors for the first time to a waiting crowd. The members-only preview attracted hundreds of community supporters who came out in the cold to see...

21 Jan 2009 #117 March - April - 2005
New Strategic Plan for CCC
by Tom Webb

Almost four years ago, 28 financially troubled co-operatives in Atlantic Canada knew that struggling one by one they could not survive. Pitted against two fiercely competing multinational...

21 Jan 2009 #117 March - April - 2005
Murky Water
by Goldie Caughlan

From the time that Congress passed the Organic Food Production Act (OFPA) in 1990 to the present, hot-button issues have persisted. There was a brief honeymoon phase following the national...

21 Jan 2009 #117 March - April - 2005
Sustainable Seafood and the Tsunami
by Niaz Dorry

Seafood has become a hot topic on many cooperatives’ agendas as stores struggle to determine what kind of fish is “green” or caught “sustainably” enough to sell. Some, like the Weaver Street...

21 Jan 2009 #117 March - April - 2005
Keep It Fresh!
by Mark Mulcahy

What are you in the market for?” Although this common phrase is used in every context from buying a car to a new office machine, it may be a question retailers should be asking their customers....

21 Jan 2009 #117 March - April - 2005
Co-ops in the Present and Future Communities
by Dave Gutknecht

“Listen up! We’ve got a problem here.”

A warning from ten years ago about food co-op governance and boards of directors remains pertinent.* While some co-op boards provide excellent...

21 Jan 2009 #117 March - April - 2005
Working Together Toward Sustainable Business
by

Like many co-ops of the 1970s, the Community Food Co-op in Bellingham, Washington, began as a small natural-foods store, idealism fueling its birth and early growth. The store outgrew its 900...

21 Jan 2009 #118 May - June - 2005
We Own It—At Last!
by Ann Marx

In 1972, when Good Foods Co-op incorporated as a nonprofit Kentucky corporation, the Kentucky statutes mentioned only farm cooperatives. Our founders incorporated as a nonprofit, hoping we could...

21 Jan 2009 #118 May - June - 2005
Small Town, New Building
by Jerry McGeorge

Viroqua is an agricultural community with a population of 4,300, set in the unique landscape of southwestern Wisconsin. The glaciers that carved out the Great Lakes missed this region, leaving...

21 Jan 2009 #118 May - June - 2005
National Organic Coalition Responds to Harvey Rulings
by Robynn Shrader

The Harvey v. Veneman lawsuit and its implications for the organic community have been the focus of many meetings and discussions in recent weeks among the National Cooperative Grocers Association...

21 Jan 2009 #118 May - June - 2005
Know where you’re going? Build cooperative capital
by Dave Gutknecht

A well-known joke warns, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there!” If a cooperative does not have its purpose clearly identified and well supported in practice, that purpose...

21 Jan 2009 #118 May - June - 2005
Willy Street Co-op Triples Production Space at New Off-Site Kitchen
by Anya Firszt

There is nothing like change to make a financially sound, managerially strong, three-decade-old business feel like a tyro. Just ask at Williamson Street Grocery Co-op in Madison, Wisconsin.

21 Jan 2009 #118 May - June - 2005
Georgia General Assembly
by C.E. Pugh

The National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) held its first annual member General Assembly at Callaway Gardens south of Atlanta this past February. More than 90 member cooperatives were in...

21 Jan 2009 #118 May - June - 2005
Fair Trade Cocoa: North and South
by Rodney North

In a remote area of Peru, where the far western reaches of the Amazon jungle wash up against the eastern slopes of the Andes, lies the isolated and poor, but beautiful and fertile, Rio Apurímac...

21 Jan 2009 #118 May - June - 2005
Blooming Prairie: The Next Chapter
by Anya Firszt

The Blooming Prairie Cooperative Warehouse closed its books with a final distribution of monies to the membership at the end of March 2005—more than two and a half years after the sale of the...

21 Jan 2009 #118 May - June - 2005
A Smoother Road to Deli Margins
by Allen Seidner

Delis with a labor problem aren’t hard to come by. Newer teams guzzle labor dollars while struggling to achieve a learning curve and a critical mass of cooperation. Until your foodservice...

21 Jan 2009 #118 May - June - 2005
Deli Signature Flavors—Your Private Label
by Allen Seidner

On a day our hot bar menu promised we would be featuring spanakopita, we found ourselves short of spinach. My spirited chef quickly thought to substitute broccoli, and the florets captured more of...

21 Jan 2009 #124 May - June - 2006
Harvey Case Tests National Organic Program
by Cissy Bowman

The “Harvey lawsuit” is first legal test of the National Organic Program (NOP). This article is intended as an editorial. It is my appeal to the organic business community to think deeply about...

21 Jan 2009 #118 May - June - 2005
CCMA Inspires Directors
by Candace Dow

Building on last year’s theme of co-ops and democracy, CCMA 2005 focused more clearly on what is important about cooperation. “We had three keynote speakers instead of two—Gar Alperovitz, Brett...

21 Jan 2009 #119 July - August - 2005
Demo Coordinators Add Value in Aisles
by Mark Mulcahy

A few months back, I was giving a seminar about growing sales, and the group talked about the value of a good demo program. This raised a lot of questions from the participants: How do we know...

21 Jan 2009 #119 July - August - 2005