The Community Co-op says it has seen a significant increase in customer sales and attendance since announcing its financial struggles.
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Community Co-op sees sales surge after announcing financial struggles
General Manager Chris Morris said sales and customer traffic have increased since the store made its announcement.
The co-op says its next step is to determine whether that increased support is enough to sustain the store. A board meeting for members is planned, where leadership will discuss updates.
For some shoppers, keeping the co-op open is about more than preserving a grocery store.
Kyra Neal said the co-op gave her a space to share her poetry with the community.
“That was just like so soul-feeding to have people from the community have a place to gather, in a wholesome shared space. And they have all sorts of events like that, and that would be like I would miss that a lot if the co-op closed. We’d lose more than just a grocery store,” Neal said.
Neal says community events like Poetry Night are part of what makes the co-op different, giving people a place to connect outside of just shopping.
For the Pruden family, the co-op provides access to food that fits their plant-based lifestyle without having to travel farther or look elsewhere.
“My mom typically shops here for getting our like their vegan food, and there’s not a lot of vegan restaurants around Tallahassee, so we cook at home. And plus, I do some baking for them with with all the vegan stuff I get from the Community Co-op. So that means that if it closes, I won’t really have a direct place I can go to that’s so local,” Rebecca Pruden said.
Jack Gugino says the store has a unique selection and that he family plans to keep coming back as often as possible.
“Yeah, we’re going to shop here pretty much every time, as much as we can. You know, hopefully we can save this place,” Jack Gugino said.
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