Welcome
Good Foods Co-op is a locally owned and operated cooperative business where everyone is welcome to shop at either of our locations - Good Foods Market & Cafe on Southland Drive or Good Foods Chapter 2 inside the downtown Lexington Public Library. Good Foods has been in business in Lexington, KY since 1972. With a modest start as a buying club in a garage, we now claim a 10,000 square foot Market. In 2002, we expanded our current location by adding a 2,825 square foot Café. Then in 2004 we opened a small Café, Good Foods Chapter 2.
Some people might call us a health food store or a health food restaurant; but we offer much, much more. In serving our diverse community, our market carries everything you need from a grocery store, with focus on natural foods, organic foods, and whole foods. We are proud to support numerous Kentucky producers and farmers. We offer a variety of vitamins, supplements, fresh fish and natural meats, organic produce, housewares, bath & body care products, herbs & spices, pet supplies, vegan foods, and vegetarian foods. Our Café offers a salad bar, a steaming lunch & dinner buffet, sandwiches, sushi, a noodle bar, and an espresso & juice bar. Our downtown cafe offers a full service espresso bar and pastries, soups, salads, sushi, and sandwiches to our week day breakfast and lunch crowd.
What is a Co-op?
A Co-op is a different way to do business. Co-ops bring people together to own and control their enterprises and to meet their mutual needs. Regardless of the goods and services provided, the management structure used, or other details, all co-ops aim to meet their members' mutual needs.
A co-op is a member-owned, member-controlled business that operates for the mutual benefit of all members and according to common principles established for cooperatives. Although definitions of co-ops vary, they all contain the following elements:
- Co-ops are owned and controlled by their primary users (shoppers).
- Co-ops operate democratically.
- Co-ops are businesses, not clubs or associations.
- Co-ops adhere to internationally recognized principles of co-ops.
Good Foods Co-op is part of a larger, international community of cooperators-750,000 co-ops worldwide with 725 million members. We are credit unions, electric and farm co-ops, cable TV co-ops and health care co-ops, food and childcare co-ops-all consumer-owned businesses that have built a base of consumer trust. Cooperation works!
HomeOur History
Good Foods Co-op was first organized as a buying club in November of 1972. “Good foods” included organic and other non-adulterated, minimally processed whole foods. Friendly folks and cheap, healthful food were the main attractions of our Co-op right from the start.
How did this buying club work? People who cared about healthful foods paid $3 to join. Then they got together in each others' homes first to prepare their orders and later to divide up the bulk shipments that had come in from various wholesalers. Within a few months, the Co-op had outgrown people's living rooms, and in early 1973, it moved downtown to use the third floor of the YWCA on North Mill Street (where ArtsPlace is now). This was the first of six big moves in the history of our Co-op to date.
Because of limited parking and refrigeration facilities at the Y, the Co-op was soon looking for a new home. Later on in 1973, Good Foods found a service garage on S. Ashland Avenue. After it was properly cleaned up, the co-op moved in and stayed for almost 5 years. Here the Co-op evolved into a small retail operation. More products were carried, and the membership continued to mushroom.
In March of 1978, we moved to a large downtown warehouse on Short St. We had five times as much store space, but paid only $100 more per month in rent. The growing store staff reorganized as a Coordinators Collective and the officers were replaced by a Directive Collective, which years later would evolve into our Board of Directors.
The Co-op might have stayed several more years at Short St., had we not gotten notice from the landlord that the building was to be torn down. Under time pressure to decide on a new location, Co-op members chose a site on the southeast side of Lexington, just outside New Circle Road, that would prove to take the Co-op into difficult times.
Though the new location behind the Woodhill Shopping Center, where we moved in 1981, was clean and well lit, it was inconveniently located for many members. At the same time, members agreed to boost the markup to 40% to cover new costs. The result was that some members decided the trek across town just wasn't worth it.
Many Co-ops undergo a crisis in or around their 10th year. For us, it was in the mid-80's when sales at Woodhill were stagnating. While some members just dropped out, the remaining members agitated for a move to a more convenient location inside of New Circle Road. In 1984, in an effort to boost sales, the Co-op was opened up to non-members. Though the board and staff were working hard to institute better business practices, it wasn't clear whether the Co-op was going to survive or not.
In 1986, after two years of looking and studying prospective sites, we finally found a site at 439 Southland Drive that was both affordable and much better located. In June of that year, we made the big move.
The Co-op thrived on Southland Drive. Sales immediately shot up, and several years of relative stagnation, with sales just under or over half a million dollars a year, were behind us. We were happy to celebrate our 15th birthday in 1987.
Growth at Southland continued to be phenomenal. We hit our first million in sales in 1987. That was the year we also undertook a large renovation project to put in better shelving, add refrigeration and freezers, and streamline the entire store layout. Board and staff skills continued to grow, and we went through several forms of management before settling on a single General Manager position. The number of member households, which had dropped precipitously at Woodhill, began a very slow rise. Sales in 1986 were just under $500,000 and in 1998 Co-op sales had grown to $3,200,000.
The Co-op was bursting at the seams. The Board decided in 1999 to move the Co-op to our current 15,000 square foot store at 455-D Southland Drive. A customer service center, a full service deli, expanded product lines and gathering room for classes with a fully equipped kitchen delighted the membership. Sales in 2000 grew to $4,797,000 and member households grew from 3,675 to 5,098.
The year 2002 brought another exciting opportunity for the Co-op - the Co-op Cafe. In August 2002, the Co-op expanded into a 2825 square foot space with a coffee/juice/smoothie bar, self-serve hot food buffet, a salad bar and a cozy seating area.
Then in 2003, we introduced a new logo, a new operating name, and new store colors to the community. We began operating the Southland location as Good Foods Market & Café under the umbrella organization of Good Foods Co-op. In March 2004, we opened a satellite café, Good Foods Chapter 2, in the main public library downtown. As we look into the future, we hope to serve our owners and our community in new and exciting ways.
Our Mission
Good Foods Co–op serves our diverse community through a thriving cooperative business.
- We deliver excellent service and value.
- We feature wholesome and organic food choices.
- We strengthen and expand cooperative ownership.
- We support consumer education and environmental stewardship.
Cooperatives and Profit
Cooperatives and Profit: What is the Relationship?
The proper role of profit is a subject that triggers strong opinion. Some confusion exists about the relationship of profits to consumer cooperatives such as Good Foods Co-op.
Cooperatives are probably the least understood form of business in America. There is little mention of co-ops in business schools or the business press, so it should be no surprise that most people know about only two ways to organize economic activities: profit-driven ventures or not-for-profit organizations. Cooperatives are neither. Instead, they are a unique way of organizing to meet community needs. They do strive to make a profit, but they handle it in a special way.
Co-ops are service-driven, not profit-driven. They accumulate wealth in order to serve the community of owners rather than to enrich investors. Co-ops have a special status recognized in state and federal tax codes as well. Profits generated by sales to owners of a cooperative are exempted from business taxes if a patronage refund is distributed (see Patronage Refunds Explained).
Businesses have to generate profit in order to attract and retain customers, because much of it is reinvested to make improvements necessary to keep shopper loyalty. Buildings and equipment wear out and need repair or replacement. If a store takes in only enough money to pay for the next shipment of groceries and the labor to put them on the shelf, it will get run-down, lose customers and eventually die. A healthy business must reinvest profit to stay vital, but with proper cost controls there will be some profit remaining after reinvestment.
In cooperatives, profit that remains after reinvestment is a community resource that can be refunded to the owners or invested in new services for the owners.
Co-ops are businesses—yes! But the goal of the coop- erative movement is to build a sustainable economy in which everyone can participate. The founders of the co-op movement understood the need for businesses to make a profit. They determined over 150 years ago that cooperatives would never thrive by attempting to under-price the market. The historic consumer co-op movement never supported below- market pricing, hostility to profit or business practices that undermine the long-term financial health of the co-op (such as uncontrolled discounts).
What makes a cooperative business different from a profit-driven business then, is not a lack of profit. Rather, the difference lies in the underlying purpose of the business and the way the accumulated money is controlled and distributed. Cooperatives don't exist to maximize profit, but to serve their owners. Wealth generated in a co-op remains in the community.
Our Business Structure
Anyone can become an owner of Good Foods Market & Café by purchasing one share of the cooperative business. Each owner may only purchase one share of the business and only has one vote in the annual Board of Director elections. The seven-member Board of Directors is made up of owners who serve staggered three year terms.
The three main functions of the Board are to ensure the sound management of the co-op’s resources, to act as representatives on behalf of the owners and to vision and plan for the future of the business.Our Board hires and oversees the General Manager, and the General Manager oversees the operation of the business.Our owners have a direct say in how the business is run by electing the Board, voicing their opinions, and attending monthly Board Meetings and the Annual Owners Meeting.
DEFINITION: A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.
Our Values
Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity,and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders,cooperative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others.
Our Principles
The cooperative principles are guidelines by which cooperatives put their values into practice.
1st PRINCIPLE: OPEN MEMBERSHIP
Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political, or religious discrimination.
2nd PRINCIPLE: DEMOCRATIC CONTROL
Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions. Men and women serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary cooperatives members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote) and cooperatives at other levels are organized in a democratic manner.
3rd PRINCIPLE: MEMBER OWNED AND FINANCED
Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their cooperative. At least part of that capital is usually the common property of the cooperative. They usually receive limited compensation, if any, on capital subscribed as a condition of membership. Members allocate surpluses for any of all of the following purposes: developing the cooperative, possibly by setting up reserves, part of which at least would be indivisible; benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative; and supporting other activities approved by the membership.
4th PRINCIPLE: AUTONOMY AND INDEPENDENCE
Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy.
5th PRINCIPLE: EDUCATION, TRAINING AND INFORMATION
Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperatives. They inform the general public-particularly young people and opinion leaders about the nature and benefits of cooperation.
6th PRINCIPLE: COOPERATION AMONG COOPERATIVES
Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional, and international structures.
7th PRINCIPLE:CONCERN FOR COMMUNITY
While focusing on members needs, cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies accepted by their members.
Adopted in Manchester (UK) by the General Assembly of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA). 23 September 1995, on theoccasion of the Alliance's Centenary. The Statement was the product of a lengthy process of consultation involving thousands of cooperatives around the world.
