Co-op Market

Grocery & Deli

Monday - Saturday: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
526 Gaffney Road
Fairbanks, AK 99701
907.457.1023

5th Annual Truckload Sale: Big Savings for Everyone!

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Saturday, May 18 – 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday, May 19 – 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

UPDATE SUNDAY: Here’s the list of sale items updated to reflect out of stocks.

Stock your pantry and save up to 50% when you buy cases and bulk quantities at our 5th Annual Truckload Sale. We’ll set up under the tents in our parking lot.

You’ll find deep discounts on cases and bulk bags of your favorite products, including organic nuts and dried fruits, honey, coconut oil, snacks and protein bars, and more! The full list of sale items is available here.

We’ll also have some items not listed, as this sale gives us an opportunity to clear our shelves and freezers of some overstock.

This is our biggest sale of the year! Come early for the best selection!

Please note: We cannot stack discounts, so our Owner Appreciation Days 10% discount cannot be applied to Truckload Sale items.

Paper or Plastic? Neither.

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Co-op Market shoppers are a conscientious lot. Over the years, more and more of you have made it a habit to avoid waste by bringing your own reusable shopping bags. In fact, according to our recent Shopper Survey, 51% of you say you always bring your own bags, and 28% frequently do.

We’re proud to say we’ve never offered plastic grocery bags at the co-op, but we do go through a lot of paper bags: nearly 52,300 last year alone. Those bags, which may be used just one time, often for only a few minutes, cost the co-op more than $13,000 last year.

In some ways, paper may seem more environmentally friendly than plastic, which is made from petroleum. But paper bags come with their own (ahem) baggage.

Did you know it takes about four times as much water to make a paper bag as a plastic bag? And the fertilizers and other chemicals used in tree farming and paper manufacturing contribute to acid rain and water pollution.

Sustainability is part of our mission as a co-op. We are committed to being good stewards of planetary and fiscal resources. For this reason, we’ve decided to start charging 25¢ for paper bags starting Friday, April 5. This charge applies only to the heavy paper bags with handles, and it is the actual cost of the bags, not including freight.

Our shoppers who use SNAP will be exempt from the bag charge, as we know EBT will not pay for it.

As always, we want to offer options and alternatives.

  • We’ve just set up a shelf in the entryway with cardboard boxes, free for the taking. Use a box. Save a bag! The grocery business generates a huge amount of cardboard waste. By reusing the boxes we receive in freight, you’re helping extend the life of precious resources.
  • We always have reusable shopping totes for sale – including the green Bagitos with our raven and pea logo. Not only are those incredibly durable, but they also hold as many groceries as at least two paper bags. Best of all, they’re made from recycled plastic bottles, and Bagitos donates profit to support environmental education for school kids.
  • Alaffia Fair Trade market baskets, handmade by women in Ghana and Togo of sustainably harvested grasses, make beautiful and sturdy grocery totes.
  • Don’t forget: You can also eliminate single-use plastic bags by bringing your own clean containers for shopping in Bulk. Just ask a cashier to take the tare weight before you fill them. And you don’t have to use a plastic bag for Produce: Bring your own bag –  or don’t bag it at all. It isn’t necessary.
  • We’re exploring possible options for a free reusable bag exchange. We hope to set something up as soon as we we get the logistics worked out.

To help you with the transition away from paper bags, we’re planning to hold a BOGO sale on our reusable bags. Look for more details soon.

Can small acts save the planet?

“One bee is an annoyance, but a swarm is a game changer. Small acts in big amounts are a force to be reckoned with.”

Want to win $100 in Co-op Cash? Tell us what you think.

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Want a chance to win $100 in Co-op Cash? Just give us your opinions and 20 minutes of your time. We want to hear what we’re doing well, what needs improvement, and any other comments and suggestions you may have.

We’ll ask about your shopping patterns and your satisfaction with the co-op. There’s also a section specifically for Owners and a series of demographic questions that are entirely voluntary. Many questions have space for your comments, too.

Our Shopper Survey ends March 1st and is open to anyone who shops at Co-op Market. Access the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XVJGLWV

(If the survey link does not work when you click it, please try copying it and pasting it into your browser. If that doesn’t work, please contact Kristin Summerlin, Marketing & Owner Services Manager, at marketing@coopmarket.org).

2019: A Quick Review

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We’ve just ended 2018 on a tremendous high note, and we wanted to share the good news.

  • We experienced sales growth of 13.6%, bringing in $4.32 million in 2018. Our projection for the year had been just 6%. Thanks to our community, we’ve grown by leaps and bounds when the grocery business in general is contracting.
  • We now have more than 3900 Owners who’ve invested in the store, more than double the number we had when we opened in March 2013. Co-op Owners are friends and neighbors in the community who believe in our mission and want to support the cooperative business model.
  • Our Lend a Hand register round-up donations to local nonprofits grew by 38% last year to $31,027.81. Our shoppers and Owners have contributed more than $89,000 to community organizations since the program’s start in October 2013. (Almost all of these donations are less than a dollar each, so that’s 8.9 million pennies!)
  • We now serve more than 325 customers every day – and many of them live and work downtown.

We also had a fabulous holiday season.

We won three categories of a Thanksgiving challenge sponsored by National Cooperative Grocers. (NCG is our cooperative of 146 retail food co-ops with more than 200 stores in 37 states and more than $2 billion in sales.)

We placed:

  • 1st in highest percentage sales growth the day before Thanksgiving (30.9%)
  • 1st among stores our size in the number of turkeys sold in November (740)
  • 2nd in the highest growth of bone-in turkey breasts sold in November (+40)

Happy New Year, and thank you!

Owners: Vote for Our 2019 Lend a Hand Recipients

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It’s time for our Owners to select our nonprofit recipients of next year’s Lend a Hand register round-ups.

For 2019, we have 36 applicants, and 18 of them have never received Lend a Hand donations. We invite our Owners to select 11 of these nonprofits for our monthly round-ups. (December is reserved for collecting necessities for the shelter residents at the Interior Alaska Center for Non-Violent Living.)

Please review the applications linked below before completing the Lend a Hand selection survey. You can also review our charitable donation policy. Asterisks indicate organizations that have not previously benefited from Lend a Hand. To view prior years’ totals, click here.

To give you time to review the applications, our survey will remain open through December 24th.

Vote as if your co-op depended on it. (Because we do!)

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Owners, it’s time to vote. Did you know that for our annual election to be valid, 10% of our Owners must cast a vote? So each year, as our co-op grows, we need more Owners to vote. We now have more than 3800 Owners, so this year’s magic number is 380.

We have five excellent candidates willing to serve on our Board of Directors. Our board members are Owners, just like you, and they volunteer their time to ensure that our co-op is fiscally sound and operating in accordance with our mission and values.

Click here to see each candidate’s photo and written statement about why they want to serve on our board.

There are two ways to vote: electronic ballot or paper ballot.
  • Electronic ballot: Instructions will be emailed later today to all Owners with a valid email address on record. Look for an email entitled, “Important: Login Info for Co-op Market Board Election.” It will be sent from noreply@directvote.net. Be sure to check your spam folder, too. If you didn’t receive the email and would like to vote online, please contact Kristin Summerlin, Marketing & Owner Services Manager.
  • Paper ballot: If you’d rather vote by paper ballot, they’re available in the store and are being mailed via USPS to Owners with no email address on file. If you receive a paper ballot in the mail, you can bring it to the store the next time you shop, or drop it in the mail.

Remember: Each Owner number gets only one vote, so if you share a number with other members of your household, please consult with them before voting.

Click here for more information about the election and our Board of Directors.

Our election ends and results are announced at our annual meeting on Saturday, October 20th, at JP Jones Community Center. Doors open at 3 p.m.

Are You Ready to Save? Truckload Sale This Weekend!

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It’s time for our 4th Annual Truckload Sale! Time to stock up and save up to 50% off when you buy by the case! Sale hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 19th, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 20th.

We’ll be offering cases and bags of shelf-stable pantry stockers at significant discounts. Look for great deals on dozens of items, including sustainably caught canned tuna and salmon; organic grains, beans, dried fruits and nuts; coconut and olive oil – and much more. The list of items and pricing is available here.

We’re hoping to make this year’s sale a little easier to shop, so please look for the table marked “Start Here” for instructions and a tally sheet. We’d like for you to shop with the tally sheet in hand, marking down the quantity of items you want. We’ll load your purchases up while you do your regular grocery shopping and pay inside. This should save time for everyone.

We’re celebrating our 5th birthday, so please join us for a free hot dog or veggie dog from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday and free cupcakes and ice cream from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

As if that’s not enough, we’re also celebrating Owner Appreciation Days! Now thru Sunday, Owners receive 10% off all regularly priced items on one entire shopping trip. (As always, the Owner discount excludes our already deeply discounted Co+op Basics and sale items. Although we don’t stack discounts, you always automatically receive the biggest available discount.)

Please note that all sales are good while supplies last. If there’s something on the list that you really want, please be sure to get here early. Many items sell out quickly, and we cannot offer rainchecks.

Alaska from Scratch Cookbook Signing May 12th

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Come to the co-op and meet Maya Wilson, Alaska food columnist and author of “The Alaska from Scratch Cookbook.” Maya will sign copies of her new book from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 12.

This is her only Fairbanks event, so mark your calendars. It’s also Mother’s Day weekend and the perfect opportunity to get a lovely Alaskan gift for somebody special.

About the Author
In 2011 Maya moved from California to Alaska and launched the food blog Alaska from Scratch — a website dedicated to beautiful, approachable recipes for home cooks, along with frequent glimpses of Alaska’s unrivaled scenery and unique lifestyle. Since then, her site has grown to be Alaska’s premier food blog, reaching a global audience in the millions each year. Maya is also a chef and food columnist for the Anchorage Daily News and lives on the Kenai Peninsula with her family.

The Alaska from Scratch Cookbook is so much more than a collection of delicious recipes with gorgeous photos. This is a cookbook well worth reading and savoring, whether you ever intend to cook the dishes or not.

“Nothing about life is perfect, and food doesn’t need to be perfect either,” Maya writes. “Food shows up in the messiness of our daily lives, grounding and sustaining us through all the moments, whether mundane or celebratory or grief-stricken. Amid the noise and chaos of the daily grind, we should be able to come to rest at the table…. I want people to feel welcome, to kick their feet up, and to have the freedom to be themselves around my food.”

Cookbooks are available for purchase at the co-op. If you’ve already picked one up, be sure to bring it back on Saturday to have it signed.

Click here for more information about Maya and Alaska from Scratch.

You Asked, We Listened: Bread & Cheese!

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The results of our Shopper Survey were clear: You wanted a bigger, better, more affordable selection of breads. Cheese, too. We heard you!

We’ve added so much more bread – including lots of gluten free choices – that we had to add standalone shelves to hold it all. Here’s a list of what’s new.

BREAD

Alpine Valley Organic Bakery

  • English Muffins (Original & Whole Wheat) – $2.99
  • Hamburger Buns – $3.99
  • Honey Sprout Bread – $3.99
  • Sweet Hawaiian Rolls – $4.99

Canyon Bakehouse (Gluten-Free)

  • Mountain White – $5.99
  • Seven Grain – $5.99

Flax 4 Life Gluten-Free Muffins – $5.99

  • Apple Cinnamon
  • Blueberry
  • Carrot Raisin
  • Chocolate Chip
  • Cranberry Orange
  • Pineapple

Greenlee’s Bakery

  • Cinnamon Loaf – $6.99
  • Blueberry Loaf – $6.99

King’s Hawaiian

  • Honey Wheat Rolls – $3.99
  • Sweet Hot Dog Buns – $3.99

Rudi’s Kids Soft Bread

  • White – $3.99
  • Wheat – $3.99

Silver Hills Bakery

  • Sprouted Ancient Grains Burger Buns – $3.99

Western Bagel 5-Packs – $2.99

  • Blueberry
  • Everything
  • Onion
  • Plain

Coming soon: Dave’s Killer White Bread Done Right

CHEESE

Beecher’s

  • New Woman with Jamaican jerk seasoning
  • Marco Polo with cracked green & black peppercorns
  • Fresh Curds with Herbs

BelGioso

  • Burrata Balls
  • Burrata with Black Truffles
  • Mascarpone Mini Cups
  • Cacique Cotija Queso

Coming soon:

Wood River Creamery

  • Cheddar with Roasted Pepper & Peppercorns
  • Cheddar with Black Truffles
  • Cheddar with Chipotle Garlic

Listening Sessions: You Can Help Us Plan for the Future

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What do you value about your co-op? When you think about Co-op Market in five years, what do you envision? If you shop at the co-op, our board of directors and management want to hear from you.

Our doors have been open for five years now! Before that we spent six years preparing to open.

Since opening we’ve grown from $2.5 million to almost $4 million in annual sales.

We work with 52 local vendors and are looking for more.

We opened our doors because of you. More than 115 co-op Owners made loans to help us open, and more than 3,700 Owners have invested in our co-op through member equity.

We will be paying back loans for a few more years, so it isn’t quite time to begin planning for expansion. But now is the time for the board and management to start working on a five- to 10-year strategic plan.

Your input will help us hammer out our core values and craft a shared vision. You can help create the framework for making important decisions about our co-op’s future.

As part of its strategic planning process, the board is hosting a series of listening sessions. Please join us on one of the following dates for good food and conversation about the future of your co-op.

• Sunday, April 22, 5 to 8 p.m.
• Tuesday, June 5, 4 to 7 p.m. (Postponed. New date to be announced.)
• Tuesday, July 31, 1 to 4 p.m

All sessions will be held at JP Jones Community Development Center, 2400 Rickert Street.

For more information on the listening sessions and strategic planning process, please email Anduin McElroy, board chair, or Mary Christensen, general manager.

Everyone is welcome!

Store Hours

Mon-Sat: 8am - 8pm
Sunday: 10am - 6pm

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Location

526 Gaffney Road
Fairbanks, AK 99701

Stronger Together

Alaska Grown