Being a grocery store is never just being a grocery store.
By Kara Brown, General Manager
Being a grocery store is never just being a grocery store.
And part of being a cooperative is taking responsibility for your role in the community.
Grocery stores are designed to make you buy more. To buy what you don't need. Even as I say that, I know -- there’s nothing wrong with treating yourself, splurging, or trying something new and different. But we don't want to be in the business of buy, buy, buy. We want to be the facilitator of you getting what you need. In the easiest, safest, most empowering, and the most fun way that you can.
We want to be sustainable. We want to help you live sustainably. All to keep reaching toward the kind of world we want to live in. There is a lot of work to be done to create that kind of world and there are many things in society that need to be repaired right now.
Maybe part of what we are repairing is our relationship with food and the food industry. Maybe we can build a model based on value, not volume. On valuing the worker and the producer, not just the product. Maybe we can actually be in the business of nurturing.
Retail food workers are called ‘essential workers’ now. The fact is, we were always essential workers. The people working in retail food businesses, whether co-ops or independents or chains, were always essential to getting good quality food to your plate; they are a vital link in the food supply chain. People who have made careers out of working in cooperatives and grocery stores and restaurants and the retail community are integral to our communities. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to feed people. And it’s also a great responsibility.
Our goal is to offer you value. Not only value in the food we sell you, but value in customer service & care, and value in your community.
Though Daily can’t go head to head with other retailers on every price point, we are offering a different kind of shopping experience. When you purchase an item from Daily, it might be a little more expensive than another store, but that extra 50 cents, that extra dollar, that goes to pay your neighbor. When you buy that apple or that sammie or that coconut water, you are directly contributing toward the fundamental well-being of the person in front of you. That person being a co-op team member, a farmer dropping off the produce they picked that morning, or a local maker stopping by to pick up their wholesale order.
For three decades now, our food systems have been industrialized, farmers have been marginalized, and food workers across the supply chain have been taken for granted and underpaid. No food tag on any shelf in any store reflects the true cost of food. Rather than continue the race to the bottom, Daily wants to steer our organization and our community toward the valuing and nourishing of human beings.
We have access to programs through our new membership with National Cooperative Grocers that give us the support and flexibility to offer our customers and members more dollar value, which is especially important in these uncertain times. This week, we get to introduce Co+op Basics, which features everyday low pricing on the Field Day organic line of food, as well as certain items on other national brands, such as AppleGate and Seventh Generation. We have some great in-store coupons, and by this fall, we will have monthly promos that will offer great discounts on national brands. Plus, we always have immediate and direct savings available on owner-member special orders and local partner wholesale orders. We will continue developing ways to get you the best food, at the most holistic price, all in quantities that allow you stock up or reduce packaging while saving money.
Where we put our money matters. We have seen the direct impact of spending money locally. We are supported by you and our local partners, and because of that we are able to turn that around and hand it right back.
That’s why we feel so lucky to offer so many local items. The local items on our shelves and in your carts represent direct financial support of our local farmers, makers, and their teams. Local means high quality products, and a reliable supply, which is essential as disruptions in the food system continue. Buying local demonstrates a vibrant community which has the drive to support itself and love it’s members. Supporting local upholds our vision of contributing directly to the well-being of the person in front of you.
We cannot do this alone. It will take government action. It will take the subsidizing of everyday needs, rather than simply the structures at the top of the food chain. And it will also take trust and patronage from you.
Our world already needed to be remade. We knew that. We are not letting ourselves excuse or fight or buy our way out of it anymore. The only thing left is to make it happen.
Buying groceries can be a revolutionary act. Join us on the journey of what a tiny co-op can become in a new world.