Sugar Beet Food Co-op turned 11 this year and the store is ready to shed its adolescence and grow into the next decade.
A Refresh Campaign to raise money for store improvements went live in July with a goal to raise $500,000. More than $466,000 has already been contributed. The fundraiser follows an owner lending model inviting the over 3,900 store owners to donate as a low-interest simple loan that will eventually be repaid. The store has fully repaid contributors for the $700,000 loaned to open the store and is currently debt free.
Sugar Beet board members Rey Rosa, Johnny Mathias and Peter Ricci credited General Manager Katie Fountain’s hard work and leadership for the store’s and fundraiser’s recent success.
“We’re made up of people that love the community, love the food, committed to local healthier foods, and so it’s important for us to grow and change. We haven’t done a ton of that in the last 10 years, and the competitive market changes,” said Fountain.
The new Pete’s Fresh Market location just down the street at 640-728 Madison St., had the potential of causing a “huge impact on sales,” with other co-ops in similar situations reporting up to 30% declines in sales. Fountain said there has been a softer reduction due to “huge amount of support from our community.”
“We’re not them, they’re not us. We’re not trying to be like each other,” said Rosa. “The immediate response [to the campaign] told us everything we needed to know. That regardless of them coming in there, people wanted us here. They need us to be here, and we need them, so that proved it to us that we were doing the right thing.”
Planned upgrades include three belted check-out lanes, matching shelves with increased height, moving office space to where the closed cafe currently is, a more professional prepared soup setup, locked liquor cabinets, new fixtures for the produce section, a new bread wall, refreshing bathrooms, and paint. Fountain said updating the sign and window wraps are also being considered in light of the fundraising success.
The improvements aim to better serve customers, allow for more space to bring in potential new local producers and help employees with their duties.
“Being a co-op allows us to be very mission-driven, and our mission at Sugar Beet is to build community through food, and pretty much every decision we make is around that, and being good to our team members,” said Fountain.
She highlighted the store’s Food For All and Beet Buck programs as reflections of the store’s values. The Food For All Program offers 20% off for qualifying shoppers including those on SNAP, Medicaid, student school breakfast and lunch programs, and veteran disability. The Beet Buck program allows shoppers to donate tokens to various local non-profits representing 5 cents saved from each reusable bag or container used.
The capital campaign will be accepting contributions for at least the next month, but people are encouraged to make a pledge sooner rather than later. Pledges can be made online on the Sugar Beet website or directly contact Mathias at johnny@sugarbeet.coop.
Store improvements are expected to begin early next year, ideally in January, but the timeline is largely conditional on equipment delivery times. Fountain and the board members said they hope to do all of the work in just one week, and the store may have to briefly close to complete the work.