Existing Regional Food Cooperatives

Locally Sown Community Grown

Maple City Market Goshen

Three Rivers Food Co-op Grocery Ft. Wayne

River City Food Co-opEvansville

Clear Creek Food Co-op RichmondBlooming Foods [3x]

Bloomington

Common Ground Co-op,Urbana, Illinois

Cooperative Startups in Indiana

Locally Sown Community Grown

Purple Porch Co-op, South Bend

Indy Food, Indianapolis

City Foods, Lafayette

Terre Food, Terre Haute

Lost River Co-op, PaoliMooresville Food Co-op

Comparison of Assorted Communities with Food Co-ops

Locally Sown Community Grown

CO-OP CITY METRO AREA

Blooming Foods[three stores]

Bloomington 121,000

Maple City Market Goshen 191,770

3 Rivers Co-op & Deli Ft Wayne 340,200

Clear Creek Richmond 69,780

Neighborhood Co-op & Grocery

Carbondale IL 59,600

Common Ground Urbana IL 185,200

New Pioneer [two stores]

Iowa City IA 147,000

CITY FOODS Lafayette 164,200

SNAPSHOT Neighborhood Cooperative, Carbondale, IL

• Recently expanded to new location: 12,000ft2 – 7,000ft2 retail

Jackson County, Illinois – population 59,600

Neighborhood Cooperative - Carbondale, IL

• 32 ‘full-time equivalent’ employees– Produce manager– Merchandise groceries manager– ‘Front End’ customer service manager– Deli manager– Office and personnel manager– Brand Development manager (marketing)

• 50 employees total – those +30 hrs receive health insurance• All employees receive paid time off for vacations

• Sales of $3.4 million dollars/yr • 2000 members [$100 membership share]• 25 years in business “a mature co-op”

Locally Sown Community Grown

So let’s say…”City Foods could easily be of similar size as Carbondale’s Neighborhood Cooperative”

• A full-service grocery in downtown Lafayette

• A business with ~ 3 million dollars retail sales annually

• 30 employees working downtown (with benefits)

• A new ‘Downtown Destination’ a magnet business that would benefit neighboring specialty stores

• One less empty storefront

• A year-round point of sale for locally grown produce – with multiplier effects throughout Tippecanoe County, keeping local money local

Consider of the benefits of having…….

! ! !

What are we looking for?• Downtown location – a site with “X” characteristics

Where “X” = sales potential at specific sites

• ~ 3,000 – 4,000 square foot space, perhaps more?• About 6 parking spaces for every 1,000ft2 sales area

Plenty of possibilities…

Locally Sown Community Grown

Next moves…• Continue engaging the Greater Lafayette Community

• Develop http://cityfoods.org website – make it more personable!

• Continue membership drive

• Write and formalize feasibility study

• Create a virtual City Foods Co-op, from it derive assumptions with realistic pro forma income and expenditures

• Combine feasibility study narrative and pro forma budget into a well-crafted business plan

Locally Sown Community Grown

http://cityfoods.org

Locally Sown Community Grown

Trip to Bloomington IN

Bike Garage

Peanut Butter and nut butter machines

Local wines and handcrafted beer

Lost River Market & Deli – Paoli, Indiana

River City Coop, Evansville Indiana

River City Coop, Evansville Indiana

River City Co-op, Evansville Indiana• The co-op is in an old Victorian House with apartments upstairs.