If you have spent any time at our Eastside Store, you may have noticed that we’re bursting at the seams! Annual sales at the Eastside have been growing rapidly as more and more community members choose to procure their food at a local, non-corporate grocer that emphasizes local, organic, and worker rights!

We realize that finding a parking spot and moving your shopping cart through our very busy store can be a challenge – and we want you to know that the Board and Staff are taking steps to improve the situation!  Earlier this year, the Olympia Food Co-op contracted with the National Co-op Grocers to do a feasibility study on expanding and improving our Eastside Store. In addition, we purchased the property just across from us on Lansdale Street, giving us the option to relocate staff parking and offices across the street – leaving us more room for a potential expansion. Our goal will be to provide more room for parking, wider aisle ways, and hopefully more products- but this will take time and we really appreciate your patience. Be on the lookout for future updates as we strive for a more spacious and modern Eastside Store!

Below are the latest updates on our expansion activities. For further information, you are welcome to email us at  expansion@olympiafood.coop

Exciting things are happening at the Eastside Store. The Eastside has
been enjoying strong growth in sales over the last several years and is
truly bursting at the seams! In order to better serve our members, we’re
exploring possibilities to make the store bigger, increase customer
parking, and improve working conditions. Last Spring we started to
look at how we could do this. As we got more into planning a remodel/
addition, we quickly discovered that there wasn’t enough space on
our existing site to meet our needs. At almost exactly the same time,
the house directly across from the store became available, and the
Board decided to buy it, with the intention of moving Staff parking from
the adjacent lot to free up space for store expansion. We are pleased
to announce that the Co-op now owns the house at 1001 Lansdale!

The house will provide much needed office and meeting space, staff rest
rooms, space for our Facilities/Maintenance work, and a kitchenette/break
room. Having this additional property opens up great new possibilities
for expanding the store itself, and the Staff and Board can now move
toward finding the most optimal use of our expanded footprint.

This is an expensive endeavor that will likely take years to complete, and
there are lots of steps that need to be carried out in succession to ensure
that our organization remains stable and sustainable. In the following
order, broadly speaking, those steps are Feasibility, Construction Prep and
Planning, Construction, and Preparation for opening.

We are now working on the first step – the Feasibility phase, which
From the Expansion Committee of the Board (Jim, Ike, Dave, Redwood, Fern, and Kitty)
includes Space/Site Feasibility, Market Feasibility, Operational Feasibility,
and Financial Feasibility. We need to know that our plans are reasonable
and attainable, and if they aren’t, the plan will need to be adjusted.

One of the first things we learned is that it’s not feasible for us to do all
of this work on our own! We need help.

Our Co-op has engaged the services of National Co+op Grocers
(NCG), a business services cooperative for retail food co-ops located
throughout the United States. We’re a member of NCG, and their Store
Development and Expansion Support will help us determine whether it’s
even possible for us to proceed with expansion without jeopardizing the
health and sustainability of the organization.

NCG’s consultants will be assisting with Site and Design Feasibility,
helping us to develop a conceptual space use plan and equipment cost
estimate. They will also assist to evaluate the effectiveness of our
operations in an expanded store. Last, they’ll work with us to create
a preliminary financial projection and assumptions, based on sales
potential derived from market research. NCG’s work could take about 6
months, and will start in the coming days.

We are so excited at the prospect of a bigger and better Eastside Store.
Stay tuned! Remember, we’ll be providing regular updates here, on our
website, social media, and in the stores.

Please feel free to contact expansion@olympiafood.coop with any
questions or comments. Thanks!