PORT TOWNSEND — With sales of more than $8 million this year, the Food Co-op defies the notion that such establishments were founded by hippies during the 1960s and ’70s.
Food Co-op General Manager Briar Kolp is quick to set the record straight:
In 1844 a group of pioneering women in Rochdale, England, opened the first food cooperative. They established the cooperative principles adopted by the International Cooperative Alliance in 1995, now used worldwide.
With 3,700 voting owner-members, the co-op has experienced an 85 percent growth rate since April 2001 when annual sales topped out at $2.1 million for the store founded in 1972.
It was then that the co-op moved from uptown into an 8,000-square-foot remodeled bowling alley at 414 Kearney St.
“We didn’t create the demand. The demand was there,” says Kolp, when asked how such growth has taken place.
“We relocated to serve the larger community.”
That demand — for fresh foods, vegetables and fruits — surpasses even the growing demand for organic food stuffs in Port Townsend and Jefferson County, she says.
Staff growth
The co-op’s staff has grown from between 30 and 35 in 2001 to between 85 and 90 today, says Robin Hake, co-op human resources manager.
That makes the co-op one of Jefferson County’s top employers.
