7 ms·

Given that Harvest shut down "after years of financial instability", what's the strategy for this new co-op to survive? If you can't run a successful co-op in C

by jpm_sd 4y ago

Given that Harvest shut down "after years of financial instability", what's the strategy for this new co-op to survive? If you can't run a successful co-op in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where can you?

socialismisok 4y ago
Most places I've lived on the west coast have grocery co-ops. Often they stand out in the market by carrying high quality, locally produced, or "hippie" food. Some folks prefer to shop there because they like the model - co-op businesses generally seem to be more invested in local communities.
- jpm_sd 4y ago
  Yes, you are accurately describing the Harvest Co-op which operated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and failed to thrive. Aka "the People's Republic of Cambridge"? I dunno, maybe it was mismanaged due to excessive ideological community involvement? Or maybe operating costs were just too high in one of the most expensive cities in the nation?
  - seibelj 4y ago
    I went to the one in JP a lot before it closed. Our main issue was that the produce was often rotten / moldy and there were flies inside a lot. It's hard to justify higher fees and being "more healthy" when all your food is spoiled. We went because it was a 5 minute walk but now we use Whole Foods for everything.
  - KennyBlanken 4y ago
    Harvest's JP location was costing them an arm and a leg in maintenance and repair due to the building (an old mansion) being in very poor shape, and then Whole Foods bought up a property from a local ethnic 'super' market whose owners were done being in the grocery business. Harvest built out a very fancy new store very close to a major subway/bus terminus that was gorgeous but everyone went to the Whole Foods which was closer to the higher population-dense areas. Location, location, location - but also WF was very stiff competition. I never saw rotten produce. I have no idea what the other commenter is on about. Organic, locally-sourced, heirloom produce often isn't as pretty as the stuff genetically modified or bred to survive being shipped halfway around the world and stored in a warehouse for 6 months.
nominusllc 4y ago
The co-op in Gays Mills, WI has been going strong since the 80's. All you need is a homogeneous community and some hippies. It's hard for one side to get one over on the other side when everyone shares the same corner store, pool, pub, and one-eyed barber. Love that place. You can smell the spices and herbs about 20ft from the door and it's just amazing. Like a spicy masala with a little skunk to it. I think co-ops work in more rural areas because it's not a fad to be there, it's the smart choice. Places in Cali are competing with an entire world of food on the same 10 square miles.
- mcdan 4y ago
  One of the oldest food coops is in Park Slope Brooklyn, which is not rural but sure does have a bunch of hippies. https://www.foodcoop.com/ https://www.foodcoop.com/
  - ch4s3 4y ago
    That place is notoriously kind of a cult. I can see it from a place I frequent, and some of the staff at that place are co-op members. They occasionally engage in illicit gossip, any the co-op sounds awful. They also boast among their members several 60s era leftist terrorists, and weather underground hangers on. Wild place, but their apiary is cool.
    - kritiko 4y ago
      It's not a cult. Sure, there are busybodies pushing weird issues at the general assembly meetings, but I'd compare it to Trader Joe's if it were staffed by mostly volunteers who only work every 6 weeks - bit incompetent, but very normal.
- candiddevmike 4y ago
  Kickapoo exchange? Driftless folks on HN?
  - germinalphrase 4y ago
giantg2 4y ago
We have some CSAs and a couple health food stores that focus on local agricultural products. I don't think any of them are true coops though.
nwsm 4y ago
They are all over. There is a co-op in my college town of Fayetteville, AR. I was not a member but it's successful.
weeblewobble 4y ago
In Seattle we have PCC, which is at least successful enough to have a bunch of different locations since my childhood. https://www.pccmarkets.com/about/ https://www.pccmarkets.com/about/
kjbreil 4y ago
Seattle area has the nations largest and oldest grocery co-op - https://www.pccmarkets.com https://www.pccmarkets.com. 16 stores and generally doing well. The answer to how to keep it going is to run it like a grocery chain with experienced leaders and good board governance. In my experience a lot of the smaller coops I've seen have a problem separating the ideology from the need to run a business, grocery is notoriously low margin so a little waste is all that is needed to sink the buisness. Check https://www.ncg.coop/find-co-op https://www.ncg.coop/find-co-op to find a co-op near you.
- itake 4y ago
  pccmarket prices are sooo insanely expensive. I wonder who can afford to shop there :-/.
  - posguy 4y ago
    Whole Paycheck shoppers On a more serious note, the Seattle Median Income is $120,907 for 2022, see page 4: https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/Housing/PropertyManagers/IncomeRentLimits/Income-Rent-Limits.pdf https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/Housing/Proper...
- losteric 4y ago
  > The answer to how to keep it going is to run it like a grocery chain with experienced leaders and good board governance. PCC is also known to treat employees relatively poorly, just like grocery chains. There are also complaints about an "old boys" culture, familiar to anyone that worked retail long-term. In the Seattle area, there are better coops like Central Co-op, with similar prices and better worker treatment (since all employees are owners in addition to opt-in shoppers) At this point, PCC is just Whole Foods with higher prices...
  - icelancer 4y ago
    >> PCC is also known to treat employees relatively poorly, just like grocery chains. I've heard this about every employer in Seattle. Forever, Costco had a great rep, now you can't mention it anywhere without people shitting on it. Starbucks used to give out benefits and was heralded, now being crapped on. Gravity Payments, lol at the founder's recent news stories. And so forth. A lot of them are with good reason, but I'm pretty sure there's a strong sentiment in this city that "all management is bad management" even in employee-owned stores. Winco is a good example of that. I mention that my employment at Microsoft was pretty good, despite being caught up in numbers-based layoffs, and people harshly wonder how I can speak well of a former employer who terminated my job without warning. It's hard to take all the criticism all that seriously, to be honest.
derekbaker783 4y ago
Syracuse, NY apparently: https://www.syracuse.coop/ https://www.syracuse.coop/
laurencerowe 4y ago
> If you can't run a successful co-op in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where can you? In the UK we have two large grocery co-op chains. Waitrose is a worker owned co-op filling the Whole Foods niche while The Co-op is a consumer owned co-op with a mix of smaller grocery stores and medium sized supermarkets. In the US I think REI is the largest retail co-op, though we have at least one small food co-op in SF. Once they reach a certain size they’re not all that different from regular public companies. They’re perhaps more common in financial services with credit unions and mutual funds like Vanguard having customer owned structures. The U.K. used to have building societies (equivalent to US credit unions) but almost all turned into banks giving their members shares in the 80s and 90s.

by jpm_sd 4y ago

Given that Harvest shut down "after years of financial instability", what's the strategy for this new co-op to survive? If you can't run a successful co-op in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where can you?

socialismisok 4y ago

Most places I've lived on the west coast have grocery co-ops. Often they stand out in the market by carrying high quality, locally produced, or "hippie" food. Some folks prefer to shop there because they like the model - co-op businesses generally seem to be more invested in local communities.

jpm_sd 4y ago
Yes, you are accurately describing the Harvest Co-op which operated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and failed to thrive. Aka "the People's Republic of Cambridge"? I dunno, maybe it was mismanaged due to excessive ideological community involvement? Or maybe operating costs were just too high in one of the most expensive cities in the nation?
- seibelj 4y ago
  I went to the one in JP a lot before it closed. Our main issue was that the produce was often rotten / moldy and there were flies inside a lot. It's hard to justify higher fees and being "more healthy" when all your food is spoiled. We went because it was a 5 minute walk but now we use Whole Foods for everything.
- KennyBlanken 4y ago
  Harvest's JP location was costing them an arm and a leg in maintenance and repair due to the building (an old mansion) being in very poor shape, and then Whole Foods bought up a property from a local ethnic 'super' market whose owners were done being in the grocery business. Harvest built out a very fancy new store very close to a major subway/bus terminus that was gorgeous but everyone went to the Whole Foods which was closer to the higher population-dense areas. Location, location, location - but also WF was very stiff competition. I never saw rotten produce. I have no idea what the other commenter is on about. Organic, locally-sourced, heirloom produce often isn't as pretty as the stuff genetically modified or bred to survive being shipped halfway around the world and stored in a warehouse for 6 months.

nominusllc 4y ago

The co-op in Gays Mills, WI has been going strong since the 80's. All you need is a homogeneous community and some hippies. It's hard for one side to get one over on the other side when everyone shares the same corner store, pool, pub, and one-eyed barber. Love that place. You can smell the spices and herbs about 20ft from the door and it's just amazing. Like a spicy masala with a little skunk to it. I think co-ops work in more rural areas because it's not a fad to be there, it's the smart choice. Places in Cali are competing with an entire world of food on the same 10 square miles.

mcdan 4y ago
One of the oldest food coops is in Park Slope Brooklyn, which is not rural but sure does have a bunch of hippies. https://www.foodcoop.com/ https://www.foodcoop.com/
- ch4s3 4y ago
  That place is notoriously kind of a cult. I can see it from a place I frequent, and some of the staff at that place are co-op members. They occasionally engage in illicit gossip, any the co-op sounds awful. They also boast among their members several 60s era leftist terrorists, and weather underground hangers on. Wild place, but their apiary is cool.
  - kritiko 4y ago
    It's not a cult. Sure, there are busybodies pushing weird issues at the general assembly meetings, but I'd compare it to Trader Joe's if it were staffed by mostly volunteers who only work every 6 weeks - bit incompetent, but very normal.
candiddevmike 4y ago
Kickapoo exchange? Driftless folks on HN?
- germinalphrase 4y ago

giantg2 4y ago

We have some CSAs and a couple health food stores that focus on local agricultural products. I don't think any of them are true coops though.

nwsm 4y ago

They are all over. There is a co-op in my college town of Fayetteville, AR. I was not a member but it's successful.

weeblewobble 4y ago

In Seattle we have PCC, which is at least successful enough to have a bunch of different locations since my childhood. https://www.pccmarkets.com/about/ https://www.pccmarkets.com/about/

kjbreil 4y ago

Seattle area has the nations largest and oldest grocery co-op - https://www.pccmarkets.com https://www.pccmarkets.com. 16 stores and generally doing well. The answer to how to keep it going is to run it like a grocery chain with experienced leaders and good board governance. In my experience a lot of the smaller coops I've seen have a problem separating the ideology from the need to run a business, grocery is notoriously low margin so a little waste is all that is needed to sink the buisness. Check https://www.ncg.coop/find-co-op https://www.ncg.coop/find-co-op to find a co-op near you.

itake 4y ago
pccmarket prices are sooo insanely expensive. I wonder who can afford to shop there :-/.
- posguy 4y ago
  Whole Paycheck shoppers On a more serious note, the Seattle Median Income is $120,907 for 2022, see page 4: https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/Housing/PropertyManagers/IncomeRentLimits/Income-Rent-Limits.pdf https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/Housing/Proper...
losteric 4y ago
> The answer to how to keep it going is to run it like a grocery chain with experienced leaders and good board governance. PCC is also known to treat employees relatively poorly, just like grocery chains. There are also complaints about an "old boys" culture, familiar to anyone that worked retail long-term. In the Seattle area, there are better coops like Central Co-op, with similar prices and better worker treatment (since all employees are owners in addition to opt-in shoppers) At this point, PCC is just Whole Foods with higher prices...
- icelancer 4y ago
  >> PCC is also known to treat employees relatively poorly, just like grocery chains. I've heard this about every employer in Seattle. Forever, Costco had a great rep, now you can't mention it anywhere without people shitting on it. Starbucks used to give out benefits and was heralded, now being crapped on. Gravity Payments, lol at the founder's recent news stories. And so forth. A lot of them are with good reason, but I'm pretty sure there's a strong sentiment in this city that "all management is bad management" even in employee-owned stores. Winco is a good example of that. I mention that my employment at Microsoft was pretty good, despite being caught up in numbers-based layoffs, and people harshly wonder how I can speak well of a former employer who terminated my job without warning. It's hard to take all the criticism all that seriously, to be honest.

derekbaker783 4y ago

Syracuse, NY apparently: https://www.syracuse.coop/ https://www.syracuse.coop/

laurencerowe 4y ago

> If you can't run a successful co-op in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where can you? In the UK we have two large grocery co-op chains. Waitrose is a worker owned co-op filling the Whole Foods niche while The Co-op is a consumer owned co-op with a mix of smaller grocery stores and medium sized supermarkets. In the US I think REI is the largest retail co-op, though we have at least one small food co-op in SF. Once they reach a certain size they’re not all that different from regular public companies. They’re perhaps more common in financial services with credit unions and mutual funds like Vanguard having customer owned structures. The U.K. used to have building societies (equivalent to US credit unions) but almost all turned into banks giving their members shares in the 80s and 90s.