About 75 interested citizens came together on May 22 in the Amherst Town Hall to discuss an idea for a new store in town called All Things Local. Organizers Bernard Brennan and Tina Clarke invited local food fans to learn from a successful model of a producer/consumer cooperative in Ohio called “Local Roots” (http://localrootswooster.com/).
The core idea is to create a resilient local community market by employing a model with lower costs (because of significant contributions from volunteers who care about the mission) and shared-risk (items are sold on consignment, rather than taking on debt to stock inventory). The store’s design makes it
- Convenient location and hours
- Year-round and indoors
- Ability to pick-and-choose among many local producers
- Single checkout, with all the usual payment options
- Producers set their own price
- 90% of the selling price goes back to the producer where it belongs (no brokers or middle-men)
- Fast drop off
- Don’t have to be onsite (lower staffing costs)
- Online pre-sale bulk orders
Local producers, consumer advocates and organizers joined in a conversation about how this idea might work locally. Lots of ideas and the collective genius of the community emerged quickly. Several task groups discussed topics from potential location to how to organize and manage a store.
Jessica Eikleberry, Market Manager and founding member of the Board of Directors of Local Roots in Wooster Ohio, spoke by Skype about the development of the project, how the business is organized, and the contribution it has made to the local community. She then answered questions from the Amherst audience.
Jessica will be available at the next meeting to answer more questions. In addition, several producers will join her to talk about their experience selling through the Local Roots store. Ideas and questions were collected to help continue and focus the discussion at the next meeting on:
Tuesday, May 29 at 7:00-9:00pm in the Amherst Town Hall
Please join us (and bring a friend) to help work toward a cooperative venture that supports local livelihoods and community investment. This is your opportunity to help create a year-round outlet for local products.
If you can’t join us, please share your questions or suggestions on this blog (below). Hope to see you next Tuesday!
