As mainstream supermarkets have upped their organic product offerings in recent years, many of the natural food cooperatives that sprouted decades ago on the fringes of their communities have grown into stores resembling modern grocery outlets - with meat and fish counters, in-store cafes and coffee bars.
Co-op advocates say the changes reflect both the desires of their member-owners and a need to compete with everyone from Whole Foods to Wal-Mart for organic food sales. But they say co-ops still offer something the national food marketers don't: ownership in a community organization dedicated to locally grown foods.
"More and more consumers are realizing that organic doesn't mean weird - it simply means food grown in more traditional ways," said Tena Meadows O'Rear, who helped found The Common Market cooperative in Frederick, Md. with five other families in 1974.
She said the increased availability of organics at conventional stores - including organic meat - has helped the co-op by exposing more people to such products. Those who then come to the Common Market's bright new store seeking a broader range of organics can learn how buying local helps sustain the dwindling number of farms in Frederick County, about 30 miles outside the sprawling Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area, O'Rear said.
The Common Market "is promoting not just the consumption of organic food, but promoting the development of organic farming and the expansion of organic farming in this region," she said.
The co-op will hold a grand opening July 29 of its new store featuring fresh meat and seafood, a deli, cafe, olive bar and 36-foot gourmet cheese island. The 18,000-square-foot space, open to the public, is four times bigger than the co-op's old quarters across Route 85. It presents a formidable challenge to My Organic Market, a privately owned regional chain opening a store in Frederick later this year. The nearest Whole Foods Market, part of a national chain based in Austin, Texas, is in Gaithersburg, about 20 miles south.
Most of the 106 food cooperatives in the National Cooperative Grocers Association now carry meat and seafood and have other modern amenities in their 133 stores, said Kelly Smith, marketing director for the trade group based in Iowa City, Iowa. The co-ops' combined clout enables them to buy and offer nationally branded products at competitive prices, and the association regularly publishes sale flyers and coupons that the co-ops distribute to their members.
Smith said about 45 percent of the group's members are either expanding, remodeling or seeking new quarters to accommodate their double-digit annual sales growth in recent years, including a 13 percent increase in 2005.
"We are definitely in a growth mode in our industry," Smith said.
More co-ops are on the horizon. The association is working with the Washington-based National Cooperative Bank and Cooperative Development Services, of Madison, Wis., on financing to help grow the number of retail grocery cooperatives from 300 to 500 by 2016.
Although food co-ops are open to the public, they are owned by their members, who pay a fee - $200 at the Common Market - in exchange for voting rights and a share in the profits, either through member discounts or an annual rebate.
Not all food co-ops embrace the trend toward consumer-driven product offerings and away from the crunchy ideals of their largely vegetarian founders. The Ocean Beach People's Organic Foods Market in San Diego doesn't sell meat and probably never will unless members vote to change the bylaws, said Financial Manager Jamie Decker. A proposal to bring in poultry and seafood a dozen years ago never got past the board of directors, she said.
She said some of the co-op's members also fought its move four years ago to a bigger store because they "were a little concerned it would take away our homey, co-op atmosphere" - even though the old place was bursting at the seams.
There was controversy at the Common Market in the mid-1990s about whether to carry meat but founder O'Rear, a strict vegan, said she's glad it was approved.
"Two of my kids eat meat. I want them to have a place where they can purchase meat that has been grown in ways that respect the environment by people who are producing a product that is healthier for them to consume," O'Rear said.
Aside from the beef and bacon, the chocolate tastings and Wolfgang Puck soups, the Common Market contains plenty of reminders that it is a food co-op. There are bins of carob-covered nuts and raisins, a dozen types of bulk granola and a copy of the Macro Biotic Network newsletter is pinned to the community bulletin board.
Sally Fulmer, the store's marketing manager, said the co-op aims to become a community meeting place. Its leaders also have hopes of opening a second store someday, she said.
"We're definitely looking forward to being a growing part of a growing community," Fulmer said.
ON THE NET
National Cooperative Grocers Association: http://www.ncga.coop
The Common Market: http://www.commonmarket.coop
Ocean Beach People's Organic Foods: http://obpeoplesfood.coop
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Food co-ops seek fresh ways to stand out in organic market
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Food co-ops seek fresh ways to stand out in organic market
Move over, tofu. Beef has come to the food co-op.
By DAVID DISHNEAU Associated Press FREDERICK, Md
Duluth News Tribune - Duluth,MN,USA
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