LANSING — Leadership at the Eastside Lansing Food Co-op, a community grocery store off East Kalamazoo Street, told its membership they’ll begin the process of shutting the store down if sales don’t meet an agreed upon standard in September.
In an Aug. 13 email to the co-op’s members, board President Holly Jo Sparks said the store, which opened in 2022 in a 2,500-square-foot space at 1605 E. Kalamazoo St., is “overall, operating at a loss, and it has been for some time.”
The store, which sells produce, meat and baked goods while offering other name-brand products at a variety of price points, isn’t bringing in enough sales to cover expenses, according to the email.
“ELFCO, at this time, is not closing,” Sparks said. “We are very much trying to stay open. However, over the past few months, the Board has been taking a hard look at the reality of our situation.”
Officials voted to start closing the store “If sales have not reached an average of $1,200 a day from September 1st through 30th,” said the email.
Board Secretary Emily Tyler said the co-op currently has approximately 650 active members who pay an annual fee of $30. The operation has been facing a deficit for “at least a year and a half,” she said.
Its projected annual budget is about $350,000, Tyler said.
There was no strategic plan for scaling growth when they opened the East Kalamazoo Street location, she said.
“The trouble, I think, has primarily been we have been struggling to keep caught up with ourselves,” Tyler said. “There has been turnover on the board during that time. And I think flow of information between operations and governance, by which I mean like the things going on at the actual storefront and then the board of directors, which as a cooperative organization oversees and governs the organization, was not at its ideal point in order to facilitate the development of strategic planning and kind of growing strategies or creating plans to scale up sales.”
The co-op doesn’t have a dedicated employee focused on membership and community engagement and marketing, Tyler said.
Now the organization needs more people to shop at the store and to become co-op members, she said.
“We want it to stay here, and we want anyone who also wants it to stay here to do their part in helping us stay here, stay operable,” Tyler said. “By simply shopping here more, spending more money and and shopping more frequently that is the number one thing. At the bottom line, we have to exist before we can get better in doing any of those aspirations.”
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Anyone can shop the store and its staff and leadership prioritize local and Michigan-based produce and products.
Initially founded in 1976 as the East Lansing Food Cooperative, it operated in East Lansing first and then Meridian Township before closing in late 2016 after Whole Foods opened in the community.
The co-op used about $350,000 in state and federal grants to relaunch itself with a new name on Lansing’s east side. Learn more about it online at www.elfco.org.
Contact Reporter Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on X @GrecoatLSJ.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Eastside Lansing Food Co-op operating at loss. Store could close
Reporting by Rachel Greco, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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By Rachel Greco, Lansing State Journal | USA TODAY Network
