Is Expansion in Our Future?

By Clem Nilan, GM
“You don't need a second store… you need a third store!” That was the succinct appraisal by national co-op merchandising guru Ben Nauman after a recent visit. Ben spent several hours over the course of a weekend observing our store.

It's no secret we’re bursting at the seams. On one side of the coin, we are a highly successful co-op in a wonderful city. On the reverse side, our store is often crowded and our parking lot can be a challenge to navigate. Our Operations Manager Pat Burns often makes the point that we are the only co-op in the country with a Facebook website devoted to disparaging our parking lot.

Many communities in the last several years have asked us to expand into their towns. We've been approached by individuals and groups advocating for expansion into Vergennes, Stowe, Waterbury, Morrisville and Plattsburg, among other places. The most compelling pleas have come from folks asking us to expand into the Old North End of Burlington and Winooski.

With our fiscal year ending in July, this is the time of year our co-op completes its annual and multiyear planning. One part of the planning process is peer review. For the fifth year in a row, I've shared our plan with Alex Gyori, Glenn Lower and Kari Bradley, the General Managers of the food co-ops in Brattleboro, Middlebury and Montpelier. This is one of my favorite activities of the year. Alex is in the midst of building a new larger co-op on the same parking lot. Kari has just gone through a large expansion at Hunger Mountain. And Glenn is considering his next step. The lesson learned is that it is critical for the success of any possible expansion to start talking early to the members… even if the idea is only on the drawing board. The worst thing a co-op could do is just unexpectedly spring something on members with no previous dialogue.

What are the essential components of a successful expansion? Besides the obvious considerations of money and site location, all three GMs agreed that bicycle and walking access were key. In case you haven't visited these wonderful co-ops, I would like to point out that they are strictly natural food stores. As a hybrid co-op, we might have a bit more flexibility in site selection.

While most co-ops across the country think big when expanding- expanding into a larger footprint or building a second store, Alex Gyori suggests that our co-op could look at smaller formats… perhaps neighborhood stores, as a possible venue for expansion. Brattleboro operates a second store, Dottie’s Discount Foods, which sells discounted and surplus food items.

Just for the record, there are no sites on the drawing board right now. As part of our planning process, we budgeted funds for a market study should a viable site come up on our radar screen.

Any decisions about expansion would only be made after a thorough conversation with our members. If any of that research indicates that an expansion might make sense for our Co-op, you can rest assured that we will be asking for your input to help us make a decision that works for our Co-op and our community.