A Look at the Year Ahead: GreenStar 2012

By Kristie Snyder, GreenLeaf Editor,
Brandon Kane, General Manager, and
12th Moon, Council President

Another year has begun, and with it comes our annual look ahead at the next year, and beyond, for GreenStar. We talked with General Manager, Brandon Kane, and Council President, 12th Moon, about what lies ahead for the Co-op.

It's 2012 — the world has changed so much in the almost 41 years since GreenStar was founded. What does it mean to be a member of the Co-op today?

BK: There are so many answers to that question! I would start with the fact that we are seeing the results all around us of a world economy that is destabilized and out of control. Now, more than ever, community control of businesses is crucial for economic stability and having a say in how that business affects your community. One essential function of a cooperative, whether it's a natural foods store or a bio-diesel distributor, is that communities, as owners, invest in a business, help direct its mission, and consistently reinvest through participation, which can happen on all kinds of levels. At GreenStar, the simplest level of participation is patronage at the store, and that can increase all the way up to joining Council. There is so much strength in this model it is unbelievable! Look at GreenStar, 41 years old and going stronger than ever. We're currently at a growth rate of 12 percent over 2010. This is the best we've done in years! A critical mass of support for local businesses has definitely been reached, and with this support we're able to do so much — offer community rental space, donation programs to local organizations through our registers, direct support of local farms and vendors through sales at our stores, and support for the formation of co-ops in other communities, most recently illustrated by our expansion loan to Mariposa Co-op in Philly.

12: I agree with Brandon and would add that the future of GreenStar should include cooperation with other local businesses and community groups to effect positive social and political changes that will further our communitys' coming together in cooperation. Forty-one years ago, people were looking to have their individual needs met in a flourishing economy. Today, more than ever before, our individual needs must take a back seat to our communities' and environment's needs, or we'll have to move somewhere else to survive.

GreenStar continues to grow as a community business, and there are many exciting opportunities for expansion and community involvement. How can members stay engaged and involved with the planning for GreenStar's future?

BK: I feel that our co-op has grown to the point where we must consider expansion options. I say it often, but I think that we would benefit greatly from an expansion of the West-End store as well as the operation of a satellite store in Collegetown. Of course, the members will ultimately make this decision when presented with all the appropriate information. I see my job right now as gathering up that information for presentation to Council, and then our membership, for consideration. One of the aspects I love so much about my job is the constant interaction with our entire community and GreenStar members in particular. I'd say the easiest way for members to stay engaged is to follow our articles in GreenLeaf and on the website as we update on our progress. I'm also available directly by phoning the store (607.273.9392) or emailing me. For more in-depth participation, we have found that member focus groups are very effective. In 2012, I plan to host a few "dinners with the General Manager" to give an opportunity for a small group of members to expound on all things GreenStar. If you are reading this and you're interested, please let me know by emailing me! As we get closer to concrete expansion possibilities, we'll host focus dinners specifically on the subject of expansion. All of this will help inform us on how to bring these ideas to membership for a vote. There are also open seats on Council and many Council committees. These are great ways to be directly involved in-depth!

12: Thanks for the pitch. Yes, we currently have two open seats on Council which could be filled by appointment until June, and our annual Council elections will be held in April, with a deadline of March 1 for members to announce their candidacy. Our various committees all have at least one open seat for members at large. I believe that an expansion of the West-End store is long overdue and will alleviate stress for both shoppers and staff, but I also believe that we should be doing more as an 8,000-member-strong community resource. Our affiliate GreenStar Community Projects was started to extend the Cooperative Principles into our community, to help educate and empower people with their food choices. Additionally, we can help others form their own co-ops, and serve as a central point for community discussions on how we can come together to fill needs in the community. Take a minute to look at materials at our Member Centers in both stores for One Minute Activist letter-signing opportunities, special announcements and member voting information. Council can always be e-mailed with suggestions or questions.

Speaking of expansion, what is currently happening with our property (the warehouse and The Space) at 700 W. Buffalo Street? Are there plans for expansion involving this property?

BK: There have been dozens of ideas put out there about how to best use this site for expansion, ranging from actually moving the West-End store to this location to installing a community kitchen. Ultimately, I see the purchase of the property as an investment and the opportunity to build equity towards a larger expansion, wherever that takes place. After owning and operating this building for about a year, it actually seems that we are best served by its current use. We occupy half of the building with product storage and offices. We've been able to lease pallet storage to local farms and producers. In the other half, we're greatly served with space for equipment repair and storage, and the remainder of that area has proved essential to Council and our community. Council and its associated committees now have "free" space to hold monthly and special meetings — prior to this, we were frequently scrambling to find space in town, and it often came at quite a price. Additionally, there's now The Space, our community rental space. The buzz around this has been huge. In the past year we've provided this space at a low-cost for musical performances, theatre, healing arts, benefits — the list goes on and on. I see this as a major representation of what we are all about -— community support and enhancement! It got really exciting when we started talking with the Ithaca Farmers Market — this year's winter market will be held in the large warehouse space. So, there is a lot going on with this property as it is.

As far as expansion, there are many prohibitive issues with this location in regard to being the site of a new store. The largest would be the traffic pattern of Buffalo Street combined with the very limited access across the railroad tracks from Court Street. Even though it's right next to the current store, it's much harder to get to, especially if you imagine it as a retail operation and not storage and offices. So, the Expansion Committee and I continue to evaluate options as they present themselves. Rest assured, as soon as we perceive a viable possibility we'll begin the process of engaging with our members.

12: Expansion could mean many things. Exploring and learning about what those things could be that would serve the needs of GreenStar and our community is coming with the experience of owning the warehouse building and responding to requests from our community. Use your own creativity and just imagine how we could use all this space for large gatherings, bringing fellow community members together to learn, share and explore — it's a great opportunity; it's a community resource.

Are there current plans for expanding the store, or adding satellite locations?

BK: There are no possibilities at this point that are solid enough to discuss in regard to an expansion of the West-End store. In terms of satellite locations, I believe strongly that a Collegetown location is our best bet for building systems to support multiple stores before looking outside of Ithaca proper. I'm often approached by members with suggestions that we take over operations of other natural foods stores outside of Ithaca. The simplest answer to this is that we are not organizationally equipped to do so at this time. It's crucial to have a strategic plan in regard to the growth of a business, and it's important to accept that this plan can change at any time! I think our strongest plan is to strengthen the West-End store through an expansion to protect from possible outside competitors, while establishing a store in Collegetown to serve an underserved population that is very much interested in the cooperative movement as well as natural foods. In my concept, the larger West-End store would be in a much better position to provide products and logistical support to our Oasis location and a Collegetown store. It always takes a few years to iron out the wrinkles in any new system, so a few years beyond that we could look outward to help establish co-ops in outlying areas. My vision of co-ops is that they are community driven, so there would be a real collaboration with the communities that these GreenStar satellites would serve.

12: As you pointed out in the beginning, Kristie, we are starting 2012 now, not 1971, and things have changed. Mass agri-business has incorporated natural and organic food production into their dehumanising, profit-driven, environment-threatening model. We are faced with very different needs and considerations, so expansion possibilities must include other ways to positively affect our communities beyond a bigger store. We are a very successful natural foods store, so what else can we do to be a successful entity to better serve the members of our ever-growing community?

GreenStar has been collaborating with community leaders on a diversity and inclusion initiative. How would you define the purpose of this initiative, and are we accomplishing it? Does Council or management have long-term goals related to this topic?

BK: I'd say that we are always in process of accomplishing it — in order for GreenStar to be an equitable workplace and accessible to our entire community, we need to constantly work at doing our best to be inclusive and free from discrimination. There is never a point when we can say, "Okay! We are an inclusive organization; we can now move on to something else." As a business, we look at everything from hiring practices to employee training to community involvement, etc. It starts with real community dialogue and collaboration on an ongoing basis to get the perspective of how GreenStar is perceived by individuals and communities not on the "inside" of the organization. It takes the ability to hear criticism and the intention to make honest and meaningful change. I think we have done very well. We've been meeting with concerned members and community leaders representing GIAC, Southside Community Center and the Multicultural Resource Center, among others, on a quarterly basis. We discuss how GreenStar can make itself accessible to our entire community and, in particular, to the community of color in Ithaca. It has been an amazing experience to consider yourself, as I did, an open individual leading a liberal organization, and then see the very real rift between Ithaca's predominately white alternative community and Ithaca's community of color. Working with this group and others on building strong and long-lasting bridges between us has been one of the best experiences of my life. Our long-term goal is to keep these relationships going and continue to build upon them.

12: Council does not have an articulated goal as such, but we have, in my opinion, focused too much on internal operations and not as much toward the greater goals of our Mission and Values and how we can join with other community members to address the needs and inequalities that exist even here in Ithaca. These discussions that we've been having with local community leaders, as well as with other co-ops in other parts of the country, are opening up avenues for us to explore even greater local initiatives that we can be a part of to form a more equitable, more democratic system that includes more than healthy foods and enriches the lives of all people, not just the lucky few.

Brandon, while you served as Interim General Manager for about two years, you have only been the official General Manager for a few months. What is your current focus in your new role, and how is it going?

BK: Briefly I'd say my current focus is strengthening the community involvement of the Co-op, supporting the success of our retail operations, and preparing the Co-op for expansion. As far as how it's going? It's going great. I love my job.

Looking back over the past year, what are some of the highlights of what GreenStar has accomplished?

BK: There are so many. Let's see: Oasis had an entire year of sales that averaged over 20 percent growth! What the staff at Oasis has accomplished in 2011 has been nothing short of phenomenal. The success and growth of our FLOWER program has been a major highlight — our low-income discount has been greatly received by the community and is currently being modeled by other co-ops in the country. The case sales at the warehouse are a great success. The West-End store broke $300K in sales in a week twice this year! That is massive considering the size of the store we run. Also, we instituted our reusable bag program, providing thousands of bags to the community and saving many thousands of disposable bags from the landfill. I hope that momentum from this will build and other businesses in town will move toward the elimination of single use plastic bags. Our collaboration with our non-profit, GSCP, to bring the Food Justice Summit to Ithaca was a highlight. Our customers donated over $4,400 to the Southern Tier Foodbank at the registers. And don't forget the huge move of Council switching to policy governance! Under this system, all members will be better informed on how the Co-op is serving its values through a system of regular reporting to Council and membership.

12: Certainly the work that has gone into writing new Policy Governance policies has been a major accomplishment of Council's this year, but there is still much more work to do before we are done. This year we'll fine-tune both the new policies and the GM's Monitoring reports, as well as work through the old policies to find appropriate placement for their content, and we'll be evaluating our own performance in a very different manner. Last year also saw us engaging more with national cooperative associations and local organizations to learn both how to improve our own performance as the leaders of a large local cooperative business, and how we can assist in forming a local living economy based on our community's needs rather than profit-driven sales.

12th Moon and Brandon, what is your long-term vision for GreenStar over the next five to ten years, or even further?

BK: That's an expansive question, but I'll try to answer it succinctly. I see GreenStar continuing to play an integral part in our local living economy. I see our Co-op serving a growing number of our community members while becoming a centerpiece of Ithaca tourism much as our Farmers Market has grown to be. I see us playing a key role in the development of an even stronger regional food system, one that serves our area from the fields to our tables.

12: I see us past all the questions and concerns of opening a larger new store and establishing meaningful satellite locations in Collegetown and other underserved communities. I see GreenStar as an incubator for other cooperative businesses, an educational resource, and a key participant in a very strong network of regional community groups looking to serve the long-term needs of all of our community members.

And in the shorter-term, any concrete plans or big changes for 2012?

B: No big changes planned operationally, but wouldn't it be great if we had some real expansion possibilities to discuss? On the administrative side, a big change will be a full transition to policy governance, which means I have a lot of reports to start building.

12: This year Council will look to have more open discussions with our members. We'll be looking to clarify GreenStar's long-term goals by working with staff and members to set the Co-op's future direction. We'll also need member feedback about updates and changes to our equity structure and our Bylaws. We represent the members of the Co-op and have a very real responsibility to guide the Co-op for the greatest good of our membership, and to do this effectively we need to have better communication with more members.

What can staff and other members do to support GreenStar in 2012?

BK: Staff and member support is already amazing — as I said before, we are stronger together more than ever. If an expansion possibility presents itself, we will look to our membership for support through member loans and participation.

12: There is a real need for a few members to step forward and serve on Council. It's an exciting time in our history and in the growth of cooperatives and the cooperative business model; the future should prove to be interesting. We could use not just members coming to Council with agendas or a great idea, but members who are able and willing to serve the needs of our Co-op and communities by giving of their time and unique talents. Members to serve on Council committees are always needed, too. Check GreenLeaf and our website or contact Dan Hoffman, Chair of our Governance and Monitoring Committee, to find out what seats are currently open and how you can apply.

If members have feedback for Council or staff, how can they get in touch to communicate?

B: The best way to give me feedback is to come see me in person at the West-End store Monday through Friday or email me. I want to hear from you!

12: Email me and I'll forward your comment to the right person if it's not me. You can always stop me and ask if it's a good time to talk or to set up an appointment to talk. If you have a specific question or concern that would better be addressed by a particular committee, you can find the contact info for that committee's chair online or in the masthead of the GreenLeaf on page 3.