Enjoy the archive of Cooperative Grocer magazine, with articles going back to 1985.

Use our full site search to look for articles by author, title, or topic. Our archive goes back to 1985!

Also available in the archives is LEADer, the NCG Governance Newsletter

    Title Issue Date
    Kids Meet Natural Foods
    BY Uli Koester

    Minnesota Co-ops Partner for Classroom Education

    What do you remember from your time in elementary school? Your favorite teacher? Games on the playground?

    		 111 March - April - 2004 March 17, 2004
    Merger Saves Anoka Co-op, Expands Lakewinds
    BY Kris Nelson
    About one year ago, the president of the board of Anoka Co-op contacted Twin Cities Natural Food Co-ops looking for assistance with a struggling co-op.
    		 111 March - April - 2004 March 17, 2004
    The Spirit of Generosity
    BY Bill Gessner

    The collective progress in collaboration that the food co-op sector has achieved over the past decade has been significant and inspiring.

    		 111 March - April - 2004 March 16, 2004
    Eastside Food Co-op
    BY Ginny Sutton

    After almost eight years of effort by neighbors in Northeast Minneapolis, the Eastside Food Co-op, a 6,600-square-foot natural foods grocery store, opened on December 4, 2003.

    		 111 March - April - 2004 March 16, 2004
    Anatomy of a Recovery
    BY Tony Bedard, Bill Kooistra

    Financial problems are not uncommon among co-ops. Many have fought through severe crises that threatened their survival.

    		 111 March - April - 2004 March 16, 2004
    GMOs: We Can’t Ignore the Consequences
    BY Mark Mulcahy

    Have you ever seen one of those silent movies where the hero is on a runaway train and just narrowly misses injury by dumb luck or blissful ignorance of the severity of the situation?

    		 111 March - April - 2004 March 16, 2004
    Natural Food Training
    BY Nancy O'Connor

    Twelve Community Mercantile employees gather around a big table in the co-op’s community room.

    		 111 March - April - 2004 March 16, 2004
    NCGA Joins Organic Trade Association Leadership Circle, Comments on Co-op Distribution
    BY Robynn Shrader

    The National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) proudly joins the Organic Trade Association this year as a Leadership Circle investor to the 2004 Annual Fund Campaign.

    		 111 March - April - 2004 March 16, 2004
    A Participative Process of Cooperative Planning
    BY James Marshall, Sandy Roberts

    When Sandy Roberts joined the board of directors of Food Front Cooperative Grocery in 1989, she had experience as a strategic planning consultant, and hoped to have Food Front develop a strategic p

    		 046 May - June - 1993 January 12, 2004
    From Nonprofit to Cooperative
    BY Scott Anderson , Alan Mathewson

    Nonprofit (dues-based) corporate structures, used by many social, political, and charitable organizations, are relatively easy to understand and implement.

    		 058 May - June - 1995 January 12, 2004
    Can Co-op Boards Do the Job?
    BY Karen Zimbelman

    It will be no surprise to most Cooperative Grocer readers that there are those who think that consumer co-op boards of directors typically represent a weak link in the overall organization

    		 001 October - November - 1985 January 9, 2004
    Keeping Our Mission, Changing Our System
    BY John Sechrest, John Tappon

    The First Alternative in Corvallis, Oregon, is a cooperative grocery largely run by working members.

    		 001 October - November - 1985 January 9, 2004
    Hold the Cesium, Please! (It Won't be on the Label)
    BY Dave Gutknecht

    The disasters wrought by petrochemical farming are in the news, so much so that one forgets what happened only two years ago. And this forgetting, too, is part of the problem.

    		 001 October - November - 1985 January 9, 2004
    New Pioneer: Successful by Working on the Basics
    BY John Higgins

    In 1981, New Pioneer Co-op was a small, floundering storefront with stagnant sales growth, unpredictable margin, infighting, and poor capitalization.

    		 001 October - November - 1985 January 9, 2004
    Sales and Labor in 20 Retail Food Co-ops
    BY Dave Gutknecht

    Introduction

    Having members of a retail food cooperative contribute labor toward the operation of their store is one of those practices that is wholly unnecessary or even undesirable in the

    		 001 October - November - 1985 January 9, 2004
    Building an Advertising Strategy
    BY Rex Stewart

    What is an advertising strategy? Basically, it is the formulation of a message that communicates to the market the benefits or problem solution characteristics of the product or service.

    		 007 October - November - 1986 January 9, 2004
    Mail Balloting or Member Meetings?
    BY Harrison Drinkwater

    Pick One: Quantity or Quality

    By Harrison Drinkwater

    		 003 February - March - 1986 January 9, 2004
    Taking a Hard Look at 'The Co-op Difference'
    BY Ruffin Slater

    When a competing natural foods store comes to town, it forces a co-op to sit up and take notice.

    		 006 August - September - 1986 January 9, 2004
    Duties and Responsibilities of Cooperative Board Members
    BY Kathryn Sedo

    Members of the board of directors of a cooperative have the same duties and responsibilities as do board members of any other business.

    		 004 April - May - 1986 January 9, 2004
    Director Compensation: They Deserve It -- Or Should
    BY Karen Zimbelman

    [Written with the assistance of Margaret Goldstein and Josh Cohen.]

    		 005 June - July - 1986 January 9, 2004