It was truly a Jimmy Stewart moment in, “It’s a Wonderful Life” last night at the Local Beet in Chester, as a large group of the co-op’s members showed up at an emergency meeting to discuss the uncertain future of the community-owned grocery store, which offers fresh baked bread, Cabbot butter, Gerry Plantin blue eggs and a variety of foods and products that are made without preservative, hormones or artificial ingredients.
As discussion of money problems plagued the room, a basket was passed around and in less than 20 minutes $1625 was raised to cover the next month’s rent for the store, located in a historic building at One Main Street. In addition to the money in the basket, there were also several declarative pledges from individuals who gave their word of honor to perform needed tasks to help ensure the future existence of the co-op and all that it represents.
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“It is beautiful here, and we want to keep this place going,” said a passionate Alissa Wood. “We are setting an example to our children of how important it is to support a local co-op, so tell us what we can do to help.”
Echoing those sentiments Cynthia Glacken said, “We have got an enormous amount of potential in this room right now. We are all here, at 8 p.m. on a Wednesday night, the week before Christmas, because we love this place and we want to see it succeed.”
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“Look at the spark that’s here,” pointed out local lawyer Lauren Gister. “Let that fire burn. We have an unbelievable opportunity right now for this co-op. We don’t want this to go away, so we have to find a way to make it work.”
The board of directors listened wearily to solutions audience members were proposing. The immediate problem facing the small co-op is simply that, costs are not covered by sales. Facing and immediate debt of approximately $10,500, including what is currently owed to vendors, taxes and rent, the board called the emergency meeting to discuss the decision to close the store.
The co-op, which was incorporated as an LLC last March, spent several months renovating the current space readying it for its May grand opening. At that time there were 75 members of the co-op and an infectious energy from the local community that a business such as this would be widely supported in a town like Chester. Since then, membership has doubled, however, it did not reach the co-ops goal of 500. Another stumbling block this new business faced, besides a depressed economy, was the hiring of full-time manager in August. Initially this strategic decision was made to ensure consistency and business growth; however that is not how things turned out. It became evident by November that this decision was not a good one and the manager was let go, however, many feel the damage was already done.
Others at the meeting felt that largest problem facing this business is the lack of advertising and promotion.
Gister referenced the successful business plan of Roxanne Cody and R.J. Julia’s book store in Madison, CT. “There is a reason R.J. Julia’s is open for business while book stores like Borders and Emerson and Cook are closing, it’s because it is a destination, people go there because it’s fun. We need to make this store a point of destination.”
Agreeing, Gus Kellogg suggested that the co-op needs to remind the community to do its holiday shopping at the store and that co-op memberships make great gifts.
Others believe that high prices and lack of variety of goods is the reason for poor sales in the store.
“We need to prioritize the change so all the members feel good about supporting the co-op for the future,” said Steve Dependent.
Board member Zoe Mcglanery said that really what is needed right now to sustain the co-op and ensure its future is membership expansion. “Members give us capital and that’s what we need.”
The meeting ended with a heartfelt thank you from the board to all attendees. The plan for now is to revisit the current economic situation on December 31 and keep the co-op members informed, in hopes that the outlook is more positive at that point.
Hopes are that by getting the word out about the dire situation facing the co-op, the community, as well as members and others, will rally to keep this store open and continue to support its efforts to supply natural, organic, locally grown goods.
For more information about becoming a member of the co-op, or for store hours go to, www.thelocalbeetcoop.com.
