Co-op Market

Grocery & Deli

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Monday - Saturday: 8am - 8pm
Sunday: 9am - 7pm

526 Gaffney Road
Fairbanks, AK 99701
907.457.1023

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A Message to Our Owners About the Health of Our Co-op

August 27, 2019 By Marketing 2 Comments

from the Board of Directors and General Manager:

As a community-owned cooperative, our health and wellbeing are inextricably entwined with the health and wellbeing of our community. When people in our community thrive, our cooperative grows and thrives. If our community suffers – whether because of financial and economic uncertainty or natural disaster – our cooperative naturally feels the impact, too, as people spend less money.

Because of our state’s current political and economic upheaval, we are concerned about the wellbeing of our co-op community.

Although we don’t yet know the final outcome, we do expect significant changes in funding for everything from agricultural programs to food and shelter for our most vulnerable citizens. In the meantime, we know that many of our Owners and shoppers are already experiencing economic hardship and anxiety about the future.

As for the co-op, after 2018’s tremendous 14% sales growth, we are now experiencing declining sales (down 3% from last year). Although we are still a healthy, viable business, we are concerned about what the future may hold.

We are committed to supporting our local economy, fostering food security, and making healthy, nutritious food affordable and accessible to everyone. As a cooperative, we have built a business model that includes many initiatives to support these things, including:

• Preferred purchasing from local farmers and producers. Our purchasing priorities are 1. Fairbanks and surrounding area, 2. Alaska grown and produced, and 3. organic and natural products from the distributors that serve our national cooperative.

• Lend a Hand and Shop & Share. These programs give our shoppers an easy way to share their resources with community nonprofits and people in need.

• Donating surplus food. We avoid food waste by donating out-of-date useable food to Breadline’s Stone Soup Cafe and the Fairbanks Community Food Bank. We also offer compostable food waste to local farmers and gardeners.

• Co+op Basics. More than 100 of our organic and natural items in every department are affordably priced every day. These items have purple price tags and are priced to compete with store-branded products from other stores – and they’re often of higher quality.

What else can we do?

One concrete step we can take right now is to make it easier to become a Co-op Market Owner.

Making Ownership more accessible will allow more people to enjoy money-saving benefits, including monthly Owner Deals and, five times annually, 10% off one shopping trip. And increasing Ownership is good for the co-op: The more of us there are, the stronger we are and the more positive impact we can have on our local economy.

Effective immediately, we are reducing the required initial Ownership investment from $25 to $10. Full investment remains at $200. We will ask Owners who are not paid in full to make regular quarterly payments of at least $5 toward their full investment to be considered in good standing. Owners must remain in good standing to continue to receive discounts and vote in our board election.

We will be exploring other options in the future, and we welcome your suggestions. Please feel free to attend one of our regular monthly board meetings at 6 p.m. every 2nd Monday at the Literacy Council. Or email us at board@coopmarket.org and gm@coopmarket.org.

What can you do as an Owner?

• Continue to shop at the co-op. We know there are other choices out there, and as expected, Costco has taken a bite of our sales. We know that it may be easier and, for some specific items, less expensive to shop at a big box store. But our relationship is just that: a relationship. We cannot survive without you.

• Talk to your friends, neighbors and coworkers about your co-op. Many people still don’t know that we exist, or that you don’t have to be an Owner to shop here. People are much more likely to patronize a business when it is recommended by someone they know and trust. You can help us grow simply by talking about us.

• Get involved. Whatever your political persuasion, we encourage your civic engagement. We the people are the government, whether of the state or nation or even the co-op. Our government only works for people when people take action: Learn about the issues. Communicate with your representatives. Vote. Consider running for office or for a seat on our board.

Unlike large corporations, we don’t have outside investors who can inject temporary funding to tide us over in hard times. Also unlike those corporations, we are here to stay. We are committed to doing all we can not only to ride out these turbulent times, but to be a source of stability and a place where community can come together to solve problems. After all, it took powerful, sustained effort from many people to make the dream of a cooperative grocery store become a reality. The energy is there, and we hope you’ll help us harness it.

Thank you for your continuing support as we navigate these difficult times. We treasure your loyalty and confidence, and we know that difficulty often brings opportunity. As your representatives on the co-op’s board of directors and as your general manager, we commit to deliberate and careful actions to ensure that we maintain our role as your source of healthful foods. The wellbeing of our community members and the health of our business will always guide our decisions.

In cooperation,

Board of Directors:
Art Gelvin
Brian Kassof
Anduin McElroy
Chase Nelson
Madeline Patterson O’Dell
Rich Seifert
Hilary Shook
Jodi Tansky

General Manager
Mary Christensen

Filed Under: Business, Issues, Member education, News

Shipping Update: Our Shelves Are Filling Up

February 5, 2016 By Marketing Leave a Comment

We’re happy to report that our freight is finally moving again, and we’ve been working hard to get the store shelves stocked full. On Wednesday, we received 9 pallets of groceries (as opposed to our usual 3 or 4). Busy stockers are happy stockers!

super stockersAll of Alaska took notice when grocery shelves began emptying out last month. The breakdown of a cargo vessel at the port in Tacoma disrupted food deliveries to Alaska. When other stores were running out of meat, we were stocking our case with local beef and pork. And while we did run low on fruits and veggies, we took the opportunity to deep clean our shelves.

We also thought it was important to share information about the shipping delays with our customers.

Many people wondered why we were willing to talk to the media when the other stores wouldn’t or couldn’t. It’s simple: Our Owners are our friends and neighbors, not faceless shareholders who live far away. We are a part of this community, and we feel that it is important to share information with the community.

You’ve probably heard that 95% of our food must be barged and trucked in from Outside. It’s estimated that we have a 7-day supply of food in the state. Now that deliveries are getting back to a more normal schedule, it’s time to think about the implications. How can we Alaskans be more food secure and self-sufficient?

Here are some ideas.

  1. Support your local farmers. When you buy locally grown food, our farmers grow more of it, and we all benefit.
  2. Learn to preserve food when its abundant, whether by freezing, canning or pickling it. The UAF Cooperative Extension Service is a great resource.
  3. Keep a good supply of long-lasting staples on hand, such as rice, dried beans, powdered milk, canned goods.
  4. Grow your own garden. It will soon be time to start your seeds.
  5. Learn about where, when and how your food is grown and how it gets to you, so that you can make conscious, informed decisions about the things you buy.

Co-op Market exists, in part, to provide a viable marketplace for local agriculture, and we are doing that. Alaskans do love Alaskan products, and demand can quickly outstrip supply.

For example, we sell out of local eggs almost as soon as we get them. We would sell more if we could get more, but many small producers can’t afford to follow packaging regulations and other food safety rules. We need to find a way to build an agricultural infrastructure to make this easier and less expensive.

With the help of a USDA grant, we will soon begin work with UAF on a study to determine the feasibility of a mobile poultry processing facility. Such a facility would make it possible for us to sell local poultry at the co-op. Without a certified processor in Alaska, we currently cannot do this.

As a co-op, we believe that cooperation may hold the key to many of our food supply issues in Alaska. Local farmers could join together and create a cooperative kitchen certified for commercial use. Sharing the costs, farmers could create value-added goods, such as frozen fruits and vegetables. This would expand the market: We can’t buy and sell these goods unless they’re produced in a certified facility.

Seeing empty shelves in the stores was a shock to many of us. But it was also good for us. More Alaskans are aware of food security, and we’re talking about it. This is how change begins.

Filed Under: Food, Issues, News

New! Save on Co+op Basics every day!

September 16, 2015 By Marketing Leave a Comment

co+op basics explainer with borderWant to stretch your grocery budget – but still eat good, healthy, organic food? Co+op Basics is here to help. Starting today, we are lowering prices on staple items you reach for every day. And we’re committed to keeping the prices on these items low.

We are able to offer Co+op Basics because of our membership in National Cooperative Grocers, our cooperative of co-ops. NCG negotiates for the lowest possible prices on behalf of Co-op Market and 142 of our sister co-ops across the country. The result is great savings for you!

You’ll find Co+op Basics items all over the store: Just look for the purple Co+op Basics logo and purple price tags. These everyday low prices are good for everyone. We’re starting with organic products from Field Day, and we’ll be adding more and more items over the coming months.

We now have three different colors to indicate three types of savings in the store.

co+op deals explainer with borderPurple: Co+op Basics 

Green: Co+op Deals

Orange: Owner-Only Deals

If you’re a regular Co-op Market shopper, you know to look for the green tags to find special sale items from our Co+op Deals Flyer. These sales are good for everyone. They’re published bi-weekly and inserted into the Wednesday food section of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Co+op Deals Flyers and Coupon Books are also always owner deals explaineravailable in the store at Customer Service. Click here to see the current flyer and coupon book.

Since we opened, we’ve used purple tags to indicate Owner-Only Deals. Because NCG chose purple for Co+op Basics, we’ve changed our Owner-Only tags to orange. (Here’s one easy way to remember: Both start with the letter O.) One of the benefits of Ownership, these are month-long deals on items in every department of the store. Click here to see this month’s Owner-Only Deals.

Remember: Every time you shop at Co-op Market, you’re voting with your dollars to support our local community, grow the cooperative economy, and put more local food and products into the marketplace. Why shop somewhere else when you can get what you need at the co-op? We’re working hard to give you fantastic prices  so that you can spend your money where it counts for you and your family.

Filed Under: News, Sales Tagged With: basics, deals, product selection, sale, savings, specials

We Did It! 110 New Owners!

September 15, 2015 By Marketing Leave a Comment

We reached our Ownership Drive goal of 110 new Owners during the first week of September – just before Labor Day and the enradish redux editd of summer.

And we’re already putting the new equity we raised to good use. Look around the store next time you come in, and you’ll find lots of improvements.

  • We put up a new end cap for bread, with a lot more capacity than the old shelves. We’re keeping it as full as possible. (BTW: Have you noticed our new, lower price on Dave’s Killer Bread?)
  • We’ve brought in lots of new products, including kitchen gadgets & accessories and a greatly expanded selection of Hispanic foods.
  • We’ve got new shelving in the Bulk Foods department that allows our buyer to work more efficiently as she’s stocking the bins.
  • Hot food items are on the way! We’ve got a food warmer set up on the Deli counter – and the Deli crew is getting ready to stock it. (Huge thanks to Yolande Fejes and Ron Velez at Alaska House Art Gallery for helping us get it.)
  • And there’s lots more to come!

Thank you for investing in Co-op Market!

Filed Under: News, Ownership Tagged With: community, ownership, product selection, store design

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  • Sunday: 9am – 7pm

 

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526 Gaffney Road
Fairbanks, AK 99701

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