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MEDFORD, OR—The Medford Food Co-op has announced that the store’s grand opening will be August 13. Special events planned during the grand opening include a Chamber of Medford/Jackson County ribbon cutting ceremony at 10:00 a.m., vendors providing samples throughout the day, and entertainment.
The Cooperative is currently finalizing product selection and customizing its Point of Sale (POS) system. The Co-op will be carrying over 15,000 products. Staff is completing all data entry, planning product placement, and inputting universal product codes (UPCs), descriptions, and pricing into the system.
Medford Food Co-op is using POS software developed specifically for Co-ops; it can be customized to include such information as whether a product is organic or local. The system will also track member/owner coupons that are available or used. According to Emile Amarotico, General Manager, ultimately store receipts may show customers how much of their purchase was organic, and how much was local. However, because the word “local” is open to personal interpretation, Amarotico continues, they may eventually go the extra mile with programming, and identify how many miles the food has traveled from grower or producer to the Co-op. Someday, The Co-op will be able to print reports showing product sales from within 10, 50, 100, 500, or more miles from the store. This will help the store staff and individual buyers gauge how much money they are putting back into local businesses versus buying from outside the community, state, and region. This level of information is important to the board of directors and co-op members, who have continually emphasized that the store needs to carry local products.
Rather than profiling member/owner demographics, as many businesses would, the Co-op has been able to go directly to its members/owners with surveys asking what emphasis should be placed on each product category, and even which individual products, brands and vendors should be carried. The Co-op has also consulted with Ashland Food Co-op and other regional Co-ops on what products and foods are in highest demand.
The Medford Food Co-op is more than a basic “buyers club”, where like-minded people buy products in bulk to obtain better price and availability. As a Cooperative of owners they have made further investments equipment, store fixtures, checkout systems, and paid staff. Some co-ops around the country are operated by members doing most of the work. “Forty years ago”, states Amarotico “the Ashland Food Co-op started as a buyers’ club, with work done directly by the members. Now they have a state-of-the-art store and a full staff. We’re starting out somewhere in-between those models.” Based on its survey of members/owners, the Medford Food Co-op will not begin by offering a full deli, as the Ashland Co-op does. There will be a small “grab-and-go” section of foods that arrive at the store prepared and packaged by local vendors for quick healthy snacks and meals. Rather than a full in-store butcher shop, meat and seafood will arrive at the store prepackaged by producers. Other departments will include a large organic produce section, bulk foods, dry and frozen grocery, and dairy. Members/owners ranked household goods, pet foods, frozen foods, beauty aids, and beer and wine lower on the surveys. The store will offer all of those things, but the sections will be comparatively smaller. Food and products will start arriving at the store by the end of July.
The Co-op is hiring staff and received over 150 applications within the first week of going live with an online employment process. The plan is to hire 20 to 25 more people by the time the store opens in August. Employment information and the online application are available at the website, www.MedfordFood.coop.
John Miele, Vice President of the Medford Food Co-op Board of Directors, is all smiles. He’s been a board member for three years, and has volunteered hundreds of work hours to the cause. “It’s all about to happen, and it feels great! The sponsors and members will be proud,” he says. The board of directors is elected by the membership and has overseen all the fundraising, location selection, construction, and hiring of the general manager. The board has happily given thousands of hours to make the Medford Food Co-op dream come true. They have many special thank yous planned for all the members and sponsors in upcoming weeks.
Shares in the Cooperative can be purchased through the website at www.MedfordFood.coop. Shares cost $100.00 and a household can purchase up to 20 shares; voting is limited to a maximum of two votes per household. Meile noted that “as soon as the paint was on the building,” there was an uptick in people buying shares. The Co-op will be open to everyone to shop, but share purchases provide people the pride of ownership in a local business with a voice in how it’s run. Down the road, patronage refunds and/or dividends may be earned, also.
After the August 13 grand opening, regular store hours will be 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
