When the federal government’s emergency pandemic allotments to SNAP ended in March 2023, many co-ops were concerned about how shoppers who have relied on the benefit would be affected. Chico Natural Foods Co-op took action to make sure shoppers continued to have access to fresh produce.
Nobody does local produce better than co-ops! For your co-op to be relevant to more consumers, it’s important to maintain a full produce assortment balanced between locally grown items and essentials not available from nearby farms.
The co-op recently hosted NCG’s retail specialists at the Gallup outlet store. NCG’s team supported La Montañita’s staff with training around making data-driven decisions and attracting shoppers through customer service, merchandising and promotions.
Bring some friendly competition to your co-op this spring with Cheese Madness! If reinvigorating storewide promotions at the co-op this year is on your list of goals, we invite you to kick off this effort with Cheese Madness.
Sales during the week of Valentine’s Day reflect an increase in purchases seen as “indulgences,” especially desserts, high quality meat and seafood, unique prepared foods, strawberries and floral. In fact, nearly every department in the store can enjoy a sales boost from Valentine’s Day using these promotional and merchandising ideas.
Viroqua Food Co+op celebrated eating local with a local food celebration and an original Eat Local bingo game created by staff. Participants had a chance to win a branded a Kleen Kanteen and co-op gift card.
NCG and the Federation are collaborating to add diversity and resilience to our supply chain, expand Black farmers’ access to new markets and provide high-quality, competitively priced produce to co-ops and their shoppers.
Inflation has hit prepared foods hard. Margin erosion is a growing concern and finding the balance between serving customers high-quality food while keeping costs down is challenging. These strategies can help you review menus, control costs and raise prices without turning away customers.
Through a partnership between the co-op and California FarmLink, the new Farmers Resilience Grant Program will help small farmers and ranchers in the Sacramento region advance the success of their businesses.
With a $5,000 grant from Organically Grown Company’s Mission Fund, First Alternative Food Co-op installed new fixtures and a new lighting system in its produce department to improve the shopping experience and, hopefully, increase sales.
