But the co-op’s growth is bringing challenges.
Sales were up 38 percent last year to $2.5 million. General Manager Jolene Cook compares that growth rate with more than 100 co-ops around the country. It turns out, the Reno co-op’s growth is nearly four times what the National Cooperative Grocer's Association considers “healthy.”
“I think there is a little bit of sympathy for the staff, it really is quite stressful to not have the things systems in place when you are growing at that rate," says Cook.
Cook says the store needs a protocol for dealing with customers, more cash registers, more parking and suppliers that can handle the demand.
“Before when we were younger it was like, ‘Anyone who had anything that was local,’ we were like, ‘Come on down, bring it on over, the more the better," she says.
Now, she says, the co-op has to screens suppliers. The growing pains are welcome. Cook hopes to turn a profit this year for the first time.
September 12, 2020He held a campaign event at the airport in Minden and in defiance of the state’s COVID-19 directives limiting public gatherings, after a planned rally at Reno-Tahoe International Airport was canceled at the last minute.
June 17, 2020When Nevada closed businesses to protect people from COVID-19, gyms were among the first to be shuttered. But for Reno-based mental health advocate Russell Lehmann, those changes were more than just an inconvenience.
June 7, 2020A vigil marking the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Sparks resident Miciah Lee at the hands of police focused on voter engagement, local politics and community.
January 8, 2020Reno’s housing affordability crisis is leading to encampments that add waste to the Truckee River. Now the city is turning to private contractors to clean it up, but homeless advocates want other solutions for addressing the root of the problem.
December 20, 2018Scientists are partnering with kids to help catch snowflakes. Their goal? Working with students to study what crystals can tell us about snow, the weather and how climate change impacts our water supply.
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