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!

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.

• Alaska Center for Children & Adults*
• Alaska Songbird Institute
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Alaska
• Boreal Sun Charter School*
• Bread Line Inc. (Stone Soup Cafe/Stone’s Throw Culinary Training)
• Breast Cancer Detection Center
• Calypso Farm & Ecology Center
• Delta Junction Trails Association*
• Fairbanks Animal Shelter Fund
• Fairbanks Children’s Museum
• Fairbanks Community Food Bank
• Fairbanks Montessori School*
• Fairbanks Open Radio*
• Fairbanks Resource Agency*
• Fairbanks Senior Center/North Star Council on Aging Meals on Wheels
• Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival*
• Fairbanks Youth Advocates
• FOCUS Homeschool*
• Friends of Alaska CASA
• Friends of Creamer’s Field
• Friends of Fox Spring*
• Georgeson Botanical Garden Society
• Green Star of Interior Alaska
• Guys Gals Read Inc.*
• Healing Native Hearts Coalition*
• Inspiring Girls Expeditions*
• Interior AIDS Association*
• Interior Alaska Cancer Association*
• KUAC Friends Group*
• Literacy Council of Alaska
• NAMI Fairbanks*
• North Star Dance Foundation*
• North Star Imagination Library
• Northern Alaska Environmental Center
• Presbyterian Hospitality House*
• The Folk School Fairbanks

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

Our Shopper Survey results are in! Thank you to all who took the time to answer our questions. Your feedback will guide management, staff and our board of directors in our day-to-day work and as we plan for the future.

What did we learn? Perhaps the most important takeaway is how deeply you care about your co-op.

In total, 463 people started the survey, and 89% completed it. (Because of its length – 40 questions – Survey Monkey had projected a completion rate of just 53 percent.) Most people will drop out if a survey takes more than 5-10 minutes, so we were impressed that you spent an average of 18 minutes on ours.

And you didn’t just tick off the boxes. You took the time to include approximately 600 comments: praise, constructive criticism, suggestions and questions. We’ll be studying these in depth to glean more insight into how we can better meet your needs.

Click here for a preliminary survey report, including charts and graphs. Here are a few key findings.

• Cooperation Matters – Three quarters of our respondents said the fact that we’re a co-op influences their decision to shop with us. 66% of our survey takers are Owners, and of those, 43% are long-time Owners (since the beginning or when the store opened in 2013). The top three reasons Owners cited for investing in the store are 1) to support local farmers and producers, 2) to support the local economy, and 3) belief in the co-op’s mission and values.

• Store Satisfaction Is High – Results show that 98% of respondents are satisfied with the store overall, with 59% “extremely satisfied.” And 98% would recommend us to friends and colleagues, with 82% “highly likely” to recommend. Our shoppers are happiest with our Bulk Foods, Produce and Wellness departments, and would like to see improvement in our Bread & Baked Goods, Deli, Cheese and Meat departments.

• Why Shop the Co-op? – The top three reasons for shopping at the co-op are 1) to support local growers and producers, 2) to support good health and nutrition, and 3) to buy high quality organic foods. This is consistent with our mission and values of supporting good health by providing natural foods & products and promoting sustainability by supporting our local farmers & producers.

(We were delighted to see that our “courteous and friendly staff” came in as the fourth highest reason!)

• Pricing Concerns – While 75% find our prices to be either excellent or satisfactory, 15% rated them poor. We definitely need to do a better job of communicating about our many discount programs, including Co+op Basics, Co+op Deals and Owner Deals. We were surprised to see large percentages of respondents said they don’t know about (or don’t use) these benefits.

Our buyers have already begun working on several pricing strategies, including regular comparison shopping. We will continue to work hard to provide the highest quality food at the best possible prices, while also balancing the needs of the store (paying our bills, creating a great work environment with decent wages, offering services to our Owners and the community, and becoming profitable).

• We’re Not a One-Stop Shop (Yet) – 75% of respondents said they buy 25% or less of their groceries from the co-op, while only 3% said they buy almost everything here. We recognize that we are a small store and cannot carry every possible product choice, but we’ll be digging into your comments to find out what you always purchase elsewhere and why. If we can bring in new products or improve the quality of what we can, we will continue to do that.

Again, thank you to everyone who offered your feedback and suggestions. We are inspired by you!

Congratulations to the three survey takers who each won $100 in Co-op Cash: Paula Kunkel, Julianne Warren and Molly Lemen!

Give us your opinions and 20 minutes of your time, and we’ll give you a chance to win one of three $100 Co-op Cash gift certificates!

It’s hard to believe, but 2018 marks our 5th year in business. Now that we’ve reached this milestone, we want to know what you think: What are we doing well? How can we improve?

We’re conducting our first shopper survey since the store opened because we want (and need) your feedback. We’ll use your answers to guide our operations and strategic planning for the coming years.

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. Most questions have space for your comments, too.

We value everyone’s input, so this survey is open to all shoppers.

Click here to take our shopper survey.

The survey will be open through February 18th.