"Pear"fect Contest

The Neighborhood Food Co-op took 2nd place in a national display contest sponsored by USPears:

Neighborhood Co-op Grocery has won 2^nd place and a prize of $750 from USA Pears for a charming display of pears, wine, and cheeses entitled “Pearfect Together.” Last year, the Co-op won third place in this national contest.

USA Pears holds this annual contest to promote pears to US consumers, most of whom focus on apples and bananas, says Co-op Produce Manager, Chris Neville. “Pears are considered an impulse buy in the produce world. This display contest helps customers become familiar with different kinds of pears.”

Displays are required to include Anjou, Red Anjou, and Bosc USA Pears, and stores are encouraged to include other varieties “The Co-op also included Barlett, Comice, and Seckel pears,” reports Neville, “and we sampled them daily to give customers a chance to decide their favorites and take advantage of the great sale prices.”

Eyeglass Drive

Got some old eyeglasses sitting around gathering dust? The Neighborhood Food Co-op wants 'em to send to Torgo:

– Neighborhood Co-op Grocery and Alaffia are working together to collect eyeglasses for Togolese citizens. Glasses will be collected at Neighborhood Co-op and sent to Togo to help change the lives of those in poverty. April 1 - June 30 eyeglasses, sunglasses, and reading glasses in sizes for both adults and children will be accepted at Neighborhood Co-op Grocery, 1815 West Main Street in Carbondale located in Murdale Shopping Center. 

Empty Bowls

From a press release sent out by the Neighborhood Food Co-op

The Neighborhood Co-op Grocery and the SIU School of Art and Design, Southern Clay Works are joining to create an event to give back to the community. The Empty Bowls event “art for your table” and “food for the community.”  All sales of the bowls will be donated to the Good Samaritan House of Carbondale. In 2014, the Empty Bowls event raised over $2300 for the Good Samaritan House, with Southern Clay Works selling 246 bowls! 

Empty Bowls takes place on Saturday, November 21, 2015 from 11am - 2pm at the Neighborhood Co-op Grocery. Mike Heath, Executive Director of the Good Samaritan Ministries says: 

”Empty Bowls has been a very successful event that helps feed the hungry while, at the same time, offering a very enjoyable experience allowing the general public to participate in an opportunity to obtain some very attractive “original” art pieces that they can personally use or complete their holiday shopping list.  It is definitely a win-win situation for both the hungry as well as the Carbondale community.” 

The hand made bowls are being crafted by students and faculty at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Pattie Chalmers, Associate Professor of Ceramics at the School of Art and Design states:

“My idea with this project is to combine a lesson in community participation with a lesson about the hand made objects and most importantly give a little assistance to individuals in need.”

The Co-op will fill the bowls at no extra charge with a plant based, Carrot Ginger soup. The soup can be enjoyed on site in our community room, while supplies last.  SIU students of the School of Art and Design’s Ceramic Program will be on hand to wash bowls and serve soup. A family friendly event, everyone is welcome!

Party Like It's 1985

The Neighborhood Food Co-op will celebrate its 30th anniversary on Saturday August 22 in Turley Park:

Neighborhood Co-op Grocery is celebrating their 30^th year as a storefront by throwing a party for the community complete with free ice cream, lots of vendor booths with free sampling –including beer and wine (with ID), prizes, a free photo booth, plus a slip and slide water feature courtesy of the Carbondale Park District, and Southern Clayworks will be selling ceramic tableware. Plus, live music by the Bankesters starting at 2:00 pm and Gentle Ben & Friends beginning at 4:00 pm. It will be lots of fun and the public is invited to this free event!

Courtney Smith, outreach and owner services manager, “We are excited to have musical acts The Bankesters and Gentle Ben & Friends to help liven the atmosphere. Lots of fun products will be sampled with a wide variety of suppliers and producers, including olive oil, salsa, jerky and items for sale from local artists, producers and farmers. A photo booth will be a rousing good time, along with a water slide and other fun happenings. It's been a great experience cooperating with other local organizations to plan our 30th Anniversary Park Party!”

The history of the store is one of total grass roots. Francis Murphy, general manager for the store tells the short story this way, “Neighborhood Co-op began around 1980 as a network of buying clubs. Early members would drive Lloyd Tucker’s (an SIU math professor) ¾ ton flatbed truck up to Madison, Wisconsin to the North Farm Cooperative warehouse and heap it full of bags of grains, beans, nut and cheese. With a full load the flatbed could only go 40 MPH and the 8 hours trip up to Madison became a marathon 12 hour return trip. Once safely back to Carbondale, the food was dropped off at various people’s homes, which served as distribution points for their neighborhood.”

Back in those days there was always a waiting list to get into the co-op, so in 1985 a store front was established at 102 East Jackson Street, which took the place of Mr. Naturals, a privately owned natural foods store. Members of the Co-op built the shelves with two-by-fours and smoke damaged doors that were reclaimed. In 1997, the co-op moved to 104 East Jackson, doubling the square footage. In 2005, a major change got underway to relocate to the Murdale Shopping Center where the store quadrupled in size! The Co-op continues to grow with the support of the Southern Illinois community.

Empty Bowls

While you are particpating in Safe Halloween at Murdale Shopping Center on Nov. 1:

The Neighborhood Co-op Grocery and the SIU Ceramics Program are joining to create an event to give back to the community. Empty Bowls are “art for your table” and “food for the community.”  The sales of the bowls will be donated to the Good Samaritan House of Carbondale.

Empty Bowls takes place on Saturday, November 1, 2014 at the Neighborhood Co-op Grocery. 

The hand made bowls are being crafted by students and faculty at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Pattie Chalmers, Associate Professor of Ceramics at the School of Art and Design states:

“My idea with this project is to combine a lesson in community participation with a lesson about the hand made objects and most importantly give a little assistance to individuals in need.”

The Co-op will fill the bowls with one of our delicious soups. The soup can be enjoyed on site in our community room.  A family friendly event, everyone is welcome!

Food-Coop and Liquor License

Councilwoman Jane Adams posted a look at items on the City Council agenda on her blog recently.  One of the items she mentioned was the State Liquor Commission's refusal to renew the Neighborhood Co-op's liquor license application, since she and other council members are members/owners of the co-op.  From Adams' blog:

As I was writing this blog I got a call from the manager of the Neighborhood Coop. Very apologetically, he said that their 2012-13 liquor license application had “been flagged” by the State Liquor Control Commission. The Commission would not issue their liquor license this year as long as the Mayor remained a member.

Further, City Council members who are also Coop members would have to “provide a statement that [we] will not ‘participate in any meetings, hearings, or decisions on matters impacting the manufacture, sale, or distribution of alcoholic liquor.’”

The Coop’s attorney argued that the law applies only to city officials holding 5% or more interest in a business that holds a liquor license. Since the Coop has approximately 2800 members, and no member may hold more than one share, each member holds approximately 0.036% (less than four hundredths) of the Coop’s ownership. This is a far cry from the 5% limit that creates a “direct interest” in a business holding a liquor license under Illinois code 235 ILCS 5/6-2(a)(9,10).

City Attorney Kimmel assured us that our single membership, amounting to less than 4/100ths interest, did not disqualify us.The state Liquor Control Commission has seen otherwise. They have ruled that, as long as we are members of the Coop, we cannot serve as liquor commissioners or vote on any issue involving liquor.

Of course I will resign my membership. Voters elected me to serve on the Liquor Control Commission and you expect me to vote on issues affecting liquor sales in town. No matter how wrong-headed I may think the State Liquor Control’s ruling to be, I am subject to it and will obey it.

 

This is the same problem the council ran into with Lance Jack's ownership of Fat Patties.  The council, which also serves as the Liquor Control Commission for the city, can work around Jack's inability to serve on the committee, since there are still enough members to vote on items coming before it.  Since, I gather, most of the council are also members of the Co-op, they, like Jack, would be unable to vote on any liquor related issue coming before the commission, effectively stymieing any action by it..  Give the commission's ruling, while fighting it is an option, the Co-op's request for license renewal would go on hold, impacting the organization's business.  The best thing for the co-op and business in Carbondale is for the rest of the council to follow Adams' lead and give up their memberships.

Wine and Beer Sales

Short interviews with Francis Murphy of the Neighborhood Co-op and Darla Lubelt of Kroger on the effects of allowing grocery stores to sell beer and wine.  It's interesting to compare Kroger and Schunucks beer an wine areas as Kroger has not jumped into the area with the same enthusiasm as Schnucks did.  Within days after getting the license, Schnucks had cleared out the are that used to be their video department and stocked it. Then a month or so after that, cleared out 2 full grocery aisles and converted them to beer and wine, along with reseting most of the counters throughout the rest of the store.

Meanwhile, Kroger still only has the half of one aisle that it devoted to beer and wine, with no refrigeration set up for beer yet.

Liquor Sales

The Southern has an article looking at the effect last summer's change to liquor licensing has had on local beer and wine retailers.  I found it interesting that they talked to three of the four local businesses that started selling beer and wine but only one that sold it prior to the addition of the new licenses.  Maybe the article didn't want any more "sales have been down by 25%" quotes in the store.

More Beer

At least one of the retailers that received a liquor license at last week's city council meeting has already stocked in beer and wine.  Schuncks has converted the area at the front of the store that used to house their video rental area to beer and wine.  The Neighborhood Food Co-op expects to stock local beer and wine within six to eight weeks.

Arnold's Market is the business I expect to come out the big winner in this.  Consider:  all of the other recent recipients of a liquor license are located very close to Highway 13. Westroads and Schnucks will compete for most of the mass market beer and wine sales on the west side (Neighborhood Food Co-op, I expect, will not stock lines such as Keystone, Bud Lite and Coors, stocking local wines and beers, more in accord with its image but not drawing big crowds).  Meanwhile, Wal-Mart and Kroger will fight for the market share currently dominated by ABC, One Stop, Blue Fish  (assuming they mange to deal with the ownership difficulties) etc.

There is no place to buy liquor in Carbondale south of Wall Street and we have seen a significant growth in housing, especially student, in the Pleasant Hill Road area.  Liquor purchases tend towards the impulsive, i.e. "Let's stop and get a 24 pack on the way home" or "Hey, time for a beer run."  Since convenience plays a big factor in the decision and assuming Arnold's does not follow the Co-op's plan of stocking locally sourced beer but carries widely popular, the store should see a huge influx in sale as students (and others) stop there on the way home or head there when they discover they are low, as opposed to making the trek to the next closest location, Pinch Penny Liquors on E. Wall.