Rural co-ops: saving shopping options

[Wannaplan?]

Great story on NPR. Heard it on my way home from work.

http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1391180.html

"Imagine a 35-mile drive for a gallon of milk, or 90 miles to buy a dress shirt or a blouse. That's what some people face when their small towns lose their only grocery or department stores. To counter the trend, at least a dozen towns in the Midwest and West have opened stores the community owns and operates."

How many small communities do you know that face this reality and actually do something about it?

"...the result is 'The Merc,' short for mercantile. It's a small-scale department store with a variety of clothes for children, women and men. Eight hundred shares in the store were offered at $500 each, raising $400,000..."

 

[donk]

Within the City I work in we have the head office and milk processing plants for one of the regional co-ops. In the communities that surround us i can think of 4-5 that act as grocery store, hardware store, caisse pop (acadian credit union) and Sears catalogue store. They are prevalent and growing in smaller, remote areas. In more urban areas areas they are dying because they can't compete with the big box stores.

 

[martini]

I heard that report last night as well. There are some communities around here that could actually use an idea like that. The fact that the residents did this seems even more inspiring than anything else. They saw the need and went about filling that need through creative means. Making a profit w/in a year is unheard of as well. GREAT! I can't wait to see more.