WANT TO OWN A GROCERY STORE?

Kitsap Community Food Co-op Offers First Memberships at Public Meeting

(Bremerton, WA) The Kitsap Community Food Co-op is welcoming its first members at their fourth Semi-annual Public Meeting Monday, September 14th from 6 to 8 PM at the Seaside Church located at 1317 Sheldon Boulevard in Bremerton. The Co-op’s goal is to open a full-service member-owned community grocery store. Meeting attendees will be given the chance to be among the first to sign up as a Co-op Member/Owner. The meeting will also contain presentations and updates from the Board of Directors on the progress of the co-op, the benefits of Membership, and more.

For those unfamiliar with the model, in its most basic terms a cooperative is a type of business in which the members are also the owners. Some recognizable cooperative businesses include: Ocean Spray, an agricultural cooperative; Ace Hardware, a retailer-owned cooperative; REI, a consumer cooperative; and here locally, the Kitsap Community Federal Credit Union, a not-for-profit financial cooperative – all of them member-owned. The Kitsap Community Food Co-op, a consumer cooperative, will be open to everyone to shop, but only members will enjoy the unique benefits, including profit sharing (otherwise known as “patronage rebates”), store discounts, and a chance to participate in many of the decisions and direction the store takes.

The idea to form a co-op began in January 2008, culminating with the first Semi-Annual Public Meeting in February 2008 to gauge community interest. Approximately 150 community members turned out for this first meeting, which encouraged the founding team to continue forward. Since that time, the Board has made a commitment to create a grocery store which strongly supports the local economy by purchasing as much as possible from local farmers and producers of crafts and value-added grocery products, such as jams and soups. And while they hope there will be a large presence of local food and products in the store, the Board’s intention is to build a full-service grocery store that will suit most, if not all, of the grocery needs of its customers and members.

“Many people in the community are anxious for us to have opened yesterday,” comments Laura Moynihan, Board President. “As a responsible board, however, we have learned how critical it is that we adopt good business practices which includes research, planning, gathering capital, building awareness setting policies, and so on. We want to ensure we have done everything within our abilities to make sure the Co-op keeps its doors open not just in the short term, but for a very long time.” One co-op success story she noted was Seattle-based PCC Natural Markets, which began as a buying club in 1953, and had gross sales in 2008 of $133 million with its nine store locations. “Cooperative grocery stores can be highly successful – with enough community and member support,” she points out.

For those who are interested in membership but are unable to attend the meeting, an application may be downloaded at www.kitsapfoodcoop.org/Membership after the Public Meeting on September 14. More information on the Kitsap Community Food Co-op may be found at www.kitsapfoodcoop.org, by contacting Board President Laura Moynihan at (360) 813-1301, or by sending an email to info@kitsapfoodcoop.org.