It’s a great time to stock up on household staples and splurge on specialty items and holiday gifts. Save up to 20% on a shopping trip December 8-16.
Here’s how it works:
Spend less than $100, get 10% off
Spend $100-$149, get 15% off
Spend $150 or more, get 20% off
You may have noticed we’re calling it “owner appreciation days” (not week). This is because we’ve added a couple extra days to make it easier for you to take advantage of the discount. We hope you like!
Please note: equity payments must be up-to-date to receive the discount. Discount applies to items in stock and does not stack with case discounts.
Not a co-op owner? No problem. You’re always welcome to shop. Click here to learn more about co-op ownership. It’s easy to join and you can start reaping the benefits during owner appreciation days!
Cold and flu season is here, so we’re having a sale to make it easier for you to stock up on wellness items! Thursday through Saturday November 8-10, save 20% on all vitamins and supplements, including probiotics, protein powders, fish oil, CBD products, homeopathic remedies, immunity boosters and more.
Our turkeys are available first come, first served. We recommend purchasing your turkey as soon as possible, to ensure supply and to give you the size you want.
Organic Prairie Whole Turkeys: These certified organic turkeys roam freely with unlimited access to fresh air and sunshine. The birds are raised with the strictest organic production and humane treatment standards by family farmers are serious about the health of the land, animals and you. These are priced at 2.99/lb. This is a dollar lower than we found at the competition! Sizes range 10-18 pounds. Available now!
Diestel Bone-In Turkey Breasts: This farm raises its birds with fresh mountain water and clean air in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. Feed never contains fillers and the birds never receive growth stimulants or antibiotics. These all-natural, slow-growing turkeys have plenty of time and space to develop, resulting in juicy and tender meat. We had many requests for these last year and are happy to now be able to provide them for smaller holiday meals. Available starting November 16.
Own a grocery store with us! Everyone is welcome to shop at our co-op, but there are benefits to ownership and during our owner drive there are extra incentives to join including 20% off a shopping trip, a chance to win a $200 co-op gift card, and a free tote.
October is National Co-op Month so it’s an especially important time to talk about what it means to be a co-op. We are a community-owned grocery store, a consumer-owned cooperative. Our shareholders are regular people just like you who elect a board of directors to oversee the store and staff carry out the day-to-day work.
Co-op owners save 10% (or more) on shopping trips during owner appreciation weeks four times per year. They can also order cases of their favorite products and save 10%. All co-op profits are either invested in enhancing the store or shared with owners in profitable years.
By becoming an owner of the co-op, you contribute to a vibrant local economy that puts people before profits and keeps more of your dollar circulating within the community. Some examples include expanding the marketplace for locally-grown food and supporting good jobs. Learn more about the benefits of co-op ownership and how it works.
Our annual meeting 2018 is in the books! Everyone is welcome to shop at the co-op, and anyone can become an owner of our grocery store. Part of community ownership includes an annual meeting to learn about the business and vote for board members who oversee it.
Our Board of Directors (from left): Venus Fromwiller, Allie Evans, Andrew Catalano, Andrea Larson-Perez, Todd Holm, Angela Sidlo, Matt Stanley (General Manager), Angi Perez, Emily Geddes, and Norma Hernandez
In our General Manager’s annual report, Matt Stanley says our new store expansion is right on track for our five year strategic plan. It has involved a rigorous land use process, including a compromise to make neighbors happy in a way that works for the co-op. Now it’s time for engineering and financing. There’s still an opportunity to make a truly local investment, as there are $820,000 in preferred shares still available for those interested in investing. In October 2017 the co-op launched an owner investment campaign raising $1.6 million in 8 weeks.
Our co-op is weathering the challenge of more competition, thanks to your support. The new store will help the co-op to become a destination to even more shoppers, with increased visibility and more space for great food including locally-sourced products and a deli with hot food.
New store rendering at 23rd & Marine Dr. Astoria
“Based on research and evidence we have from other co-ops, we need to get out there and be visible to be relevant and be in this community for another 40 years,” Stanley said.
Our expansion timeline is fluid, but your co-op could break ground as soon as January and construction is expected to take about a year.
Some other points Stanley made:
100% of staff are eligible for PTO, 89% eligible for health care, and $16/hr. is the average wage
Nearly no food is thrown in the trash: more than 8,000 pounds of produce scraps went to farmers in 2017 and 22,000 pounds of edible food was donated to the food bank
A program called Co+op Forest offsets our business travel emissions
We work with 50+ truly local producers from our coastal region and we’re excited to be able to expand our local offering in a larger venue
Community giving is growing as the store grows in sales including in-kind donations, large sponsorships focused on health and wellness, Beans for Bags and Change for Community
72% of sales came from co-op owners in 2017 and 28% from other shoppers
Our co-op grew by 280 new owners in 2017 and we now have 4200
Stanley concluded his report by saying how excited he is to grow so we can provide a bigger community impact including access to more healthy and local food.
If all goes well we could possibly break ground on the new store early next year!
The city council this week approved our new site plan. Your co-op altered plans to include a new access road from 23rd Street, because neighbors were concerned about the previous plan to use a more narrow street called Steam Whistle Way.
Three Mill Pond residential property owners had appealed our project and even though the city council had sided with the co-op, we wanted to avoid another possible appeal. Further, as a community-owned store, acceptance from our future neighbors is important.
According to the Daily Astorian, “City Manager Brett Estes said it is the first time in his career he has witnessed this kind of peaceful compromise after an issue has reached the battleground of the appeals process.”
It has been a challenging land use process, so the city manager’s positive comment is especially great to hear. We hope you are as proud as everyone on our development team to be a part of a project that’s moving forward with integrity!
Now it’s a matter of finalizing plans and getting permits so we can build our new store which could be open by early 2020. Timing is in line with a goal in the co-op’s strategic plan to open much-needed bigger new store.
We went back to the drawing board and have a new site plan that neighbors who had opposed the layout of our future store now support.
Our expansion has been in a months-long land use process including a recent appeal by three residential property owners surrounding the co-op site. Their concerns centered around Steam Whistle Way, the street that would be used to access our parking lot. While the Astoria City Council ruled on our side, we wanted to see if we could alter the plan to satisfy neighbors, avoiding an expensive and time-consuming prospect of an appeal to the state.
So in order to move the project forward we’ve worked with stakeholders to develop a new site plan that uses an alternate access to our parking lot off of 23rd street. The appellants support this option. With an agreement in place, we will return to city council to sign off on the plan at a meeting September 24.
Next steps would include completing engineering of the new building and permitting. We hope to be in our much-needed bigger new store possibly as early as next year!
If you have questions or feedback please contact GM Matt Stanley matt@astoria.coop.
It’s a great time to be a co-op owner! Owner Appreciation Week is September 16-22, 2018 and we’re trying out a new discount structure that allows co-op owners to save up to 20% on a shopping trip.
Here’s what the new discount structure includes:
10% off on purchases under $100
15% off on purchases of $100 or more
20% off on purchases of $150 or more
Please note: equity payments must be up-to-date to receive the discount. Discount applies to items in stock and does not stack with case discounts.
Not a co-op owner? No problem. You’re always welcome to shop! If you’d like to learn more about how you can sign up and save during owner appreciation week and the good that comes from being an owner of our consumer-owned cooperative, click here to learn more about co-op ownership.
Click here for the order form. Orders must be submitted by Thursday September 6 for pickup at the store anytime on Saturday September 8.
Savor summer throughout the year by preserving organic fruit and veggies from your co-op! We’ve got specials on cases of organic peaches, green beans, tomatoes, and pickling cukes. Simply fill it out the order form and bring it by the co-op or email your order information to our produce manager Danny at danny@astoria.coop.
Sale prices are final (no additional case discounts).
Our annual meeting for co-op owners is happening on Sunday September 30 at 5-7 p.m. at the Loft at the Red Building (20 Basin St.) in Astoria.
There will be dinner by Chef Andrew Catalano, music by the Brownsmead Flats, an annual report and election including new Board members and proposed updates to our bylaws. No need to RSVP this year.
Bylaws Change Proposal
It is considered best practice in cooperative governance to review and amend bylaws from time-to-time to ensure they continue to meet legal requirements, reflect best practices, and serve the best interest of the co-op. We’ll be asking you to vote at the annual meeting to adopt these new bylaws. Here’s the information you need:
