Community-built

This week, our LexTalk newsletter landed in your mailbox. ThereĀ areĀ a lot of great words about our growth to Hertel, including an inspiring story fromĀ Tim, our General Manager:
I was on the phone with Co-op owner number two the other day talking with him about our Big Direction Capital Campaign. āI love the co-op,ā he told me. āIāve been coming in since the 1970s and Iāve never had a bad experience. Well, maybe one, but that was a long time ago. Itās going to be tough for me to participate, but I really want to do this. When I walk in, I feel like I own the place. You just donāt feel that everywhere.ā
We are having so much fun with this Capital Campaign. We have talked to many owners who all echo the same sentiment – āI love the co-op!ā The pride and joy that emanates from this business is powerful and tangible. It comes from owners and staff alike.
Capital is necessary for any business to grow and thrive. Many business owners tap into their personal savings to capitalize their businessĀ ā sometimes at great peril to their personal finances and relationships. Others go public and offer stock on Wall Street, giving up the localĀ control that made them different.
Co-ops are different; we are owned solely by the people who use the service we provide. So when we need capital to grow our co-op,Ā it is the people who own it – the people who use it – who fund it. It is the third co-operative principal, and it is part of theĀ economic self-determination that is a central value of co-operatives.
Personally, most of my savings are tied up in my retirement plan. Every day this money is used by the stock market to build a world that is exactly the opposite of the one Iām trying to create in the rest of my life. But investing in the stock market offers tax advantages, so I keep adding to my 401k. The Preferred Shares campaign gives me the opportunity to divert some of those monies and invest them locally in my co-op.
In 2013, one of my co-op heroes, Paul Hazen, speaking to the United Nations said ārugged individualism didnāt build America, co-operation did. And itās needed now more than ever.ā
This is a radical idea: that a community could come together and fund the business that serves them. But when we open our second store on Hertel, the entire community will be able to look at it and say āwe built thatā. How great is that?
Co-op owners who are NYS residents can invest in their co-op and grow the community business they own.