Fresh Co-Op Initiatives

Clark Case
February 22, 2024

There are a couple of new initiatives the Coop is pursuing this year that we hope will help the people who need a boost in their nutrition and pocketbook. The first one is our new fund that will help the people who are most in need of support to feed themselves and their families. The Convite Fund has been established through contributions of concerned Coop members to help people who might find themselves in immediate need of food but without the means to pay for it. We don’t think anyone in our community should be suffering from hunger. If you find yourself in need, please ask any of the managers on duty and we can get you some good and nutritious food immediately, free of charge. This fund doesn’t pay for candy or tobacco products, but you will walk out of the store with enough healthy food to get you and your family through a tough time. If you would like to contribute to this fund you can also talk to one of the managers and we can help you add to the fund.

The other effort we are making is to create more locally grown produce available here at the store. All of the people who shop at the Coop will benefit from this, and anyone who uses EBT can take advantage of the Double Up Food Bucks program that gives you half price on all local produce when you use your EBT. We are reaching out to all growers in the area so we can be a daily farmers’ market during the growing months. If you grow food or would like to grow food for the Coop, we will soon be holding a meeting that will help us coordinate our needs with those of you who are planning your planting schedule. Currently, we buy most of our produce from an organic distribution company in California, but I would much prefer to buy local products that are harvested within a couple of days, if not hours, of having them available at the store. It also reduces the environmental impact if we are delivering items from Apodaca instead of the Central Valley of California. And best of all for the local economy, the money we spend in Dixon stays in Dixon. Look for an announcement in the coming week about our organizing meeting in early March to establish how we optimize our local purchasing.

And in the meantime, what’s left of last year’s seeds are 40% off right now, and our new seed have arrived. Get yours today, and I hope to see you soon at the Coop.

The Annual Meeting is this weekend!

Clark Case
January 24, 2024

The annual members’ meeting of the Dixon Cooperative Market will take place on Saturday, January 27th, at 1:00 pm at the Embudo Valley Library. All members are welcome to attend in person, and a Zoom invitation is available by contacting Board President Nancy Levit by email at nancy@dixonmarket.com. The agenda includes reports from the board president and treasurer, as well as a report from the manager. Public input will also be included. Finally, election results for new board members will be announced. Please come to the store to vote, or get your ballot in the mail so we receive it by Saturday.

The Coop exists to provide a wide variety of food and necessities to the people who live in and near the Embudo Valley. While we are a for-profit business, our goal is not to make a profit beyond what we need to operate. If we make a large profit, we are not doing our members any favor because it means we are charging them more than we need. In 2023 we were less than .0025% off of our sales to break exactly even. Not bad, considering we did over $1.3 million in sales. If you like statistics like that, come to the meeting for a whole lot more.

The biggest challenge we have here at the Coop is keeping prices down. Because of our remoteness and scale of our volume of sales we struggle to keep our cost of goods at a rate that could compete with bigger stores in more populated areas. As our volume increases, our gross profit margin can be decreased which brings prices down a bit. Our clientele is limited to those who live here and the tourist trade that builds in the summer and dwindles in the late winter months. That is why it is important to the health of the Coop to get the business, especially in these months, of those of us who live here. Without enough volume of sales, we will only break even with higher margins of what we sell. We don’t like raising prices any more than you like paying them.

Another challenge is convincing people to take advantage of the benefits of membership. Did you know that if you took your discount on one purchase of $12.50 each month you would pay for your membership? I recommend taking the discount on purchases of $125 or more once a month and saving ten times the cost of your membership for the year. Being a member also allows you savings on bulk orders through our buying club. We would love to help you find lower food costs by taking advantage of the buying club and member discounts. I you’re not a member, join us. If you are already a member, take your discount and check out the buying club. I hope to see you soon at the Coop,

–Clark

January News from the Coop

Clark Case
January 3, 2024

Happy New Year from all of us at the Coop. We’re looking forward to providing you with good food in the year to come, and hope the addition that we are starting will offer an opportunity to give you better service and selection. It’s going to be a busy and exciting year here, full of changes and improvements, and I can’t wait to see what the year holds for our little store and our greater community.

If you are interested in buying a portion of a steer from Vaquero Beef, let me know. We should be receiving it in the next couple of weeks, and I would be willing to sell it at our buying club prices if you would like as little as 1/8th of the beast. Pricing and total weight will depend on the finished product that Joe delivers to us, but if you are interested, talk to me here at the store so I can reserve you a share of it. You would get ground beef, steak, roast and ribs if you opt in, and at a discount of about 20% off of our shelf pricing. This is grass fed and finished meat that roams in the neighboring hills for its happy life. It’s lean and local, the best meat you can find.

The Dixon Deli is still making fresh pizzas and sandwiches to order, and we try to have sandwiches available in the hot case for you to grab and go. Javier has been making some specialty burritos as well as soups and stews, so stop in and check out what is available as a special each day. Specialty cheeses and olives are available in the cold case by the Deli as well as our cold sandwiches and salsa and guac made here in the kitchen. And after selling over 37,000 breakfast burritos we’ve figured out how to make them so you’ll want one every day. Only about 25 lucky people get them every day, so get in early for yours.

January and February are our slowest months, and we could use all the business we can get in the coldest part of the year. Please consider skipping that trip through the canyon and keeping your money in town. The impact of shopping local is huge. Don’t give your hard earned money to the richest corporations in the world like Amazon and Walmart, and now that Krogers and Albertsons are merging they will be able to squeeze us little guys out even easier unless the consumers make the decision to support the businesses that create local economies. Thanks for your business, and I hope to see you soon at the Coop.

December News

Clark Case
December 15, 2023

Christmas is right around the corner and so we’ve bumped up our toy selection here at the Coop. If you think Santa might need a little help you can check out our selection on the end cap by the dairy refrigerator. The kids who have come in lately seem to naturally gravitate to that section, like a beacon for all of those kids on the nice list. For the adults on the list, we always have a selection of locally made arts and crafts, books, cards and sweets that can make anyone feel special. If you have any special needs for the Holiday dinners, let us know as soon as you can and we can get something ordered for you. And don’t miss Santa’s visit to the Coop on Saturday the 16th from 11 am to 3 pm on the front porch. He’s warming up for his sled ride in the Electric Light Parade later that night, but you can come and get the kids’ pictures with him here in the daylight.

We really encourage all of our supporters to utilize the Coop as much as you can for your holiday food needs. This is a make or break time of year for small stores, and the Coop is no exception. We depend on your patronage to continue to stay open, and the numbers in December, January and February are always the hardest to crunch as our sales slump and our bills increase. If you are someone who appreciates the fact that Dixon has a store that carries such a wide variety of good products, then don’t take it for granted that it operates without your patronage. I have always been interested in the number of dollars spent in this town on food. With around seven hundred households in the ten mile radius around the store, and an average monthly household expenditure of around $1000 for a family of four, we spend a lot of money collectively on the food we eat. The Coop’s purpose is to create a situation where we can all come together to build an economic advantage for its members, even beyond the convenience that it offers, but that becomes most advantageous only when our purchasing is maximized. If we all shopped here, we would be able to optimize pricing and selection. In the meantime, come in and use your member discount and take advantage of the buying club where you get huge discounts on bulk buying, even on items we don’t normally carry. Talk to any of us in the office and we’ll help you start saving money by shopping at the Coop.

Whether you have visitors or not coming in for the holidays, the Dixon Deli is ready to help you. We are making sandwiches to order as well as having a selection for grab and go if you don’t want to wait. You can find more items available, including chicharron burritos, green chile stew and soon you can get tamales and posolé made here in our kitchen. That should help you get into the Christmas spirit.

Hope to see you soon at the Coop, Clark