2021 Silverton Food Co-op Owner Survey Key Takeaways

Total number of non-duplicated responses:  125 (26% of respondents invested and 7% donated during the capital campaign)
 
How respondents answered questions:

• Success of the Co-op is very important to 53 respondents (42%)
• 33 respondents are very confident the Co-op will be successful in 5 years (26%); 26 respondents are not at all confident (21%)
• A storefront co-op is very important to 52 respondents (42%), for another 65 it is somewhat important (52%)
• 10 respondents want to dissolve now (8%)
•  28 respondents want Option 1 (20%)
• 87 respondents are unsure of what to do next or otherwise said they want Option 2 (70%)

This is what we heard through comments:
People who want a food co-op and expressed ideas about next steps want a storefront, a place to shop.  For certain respondents, any effort that was not an effort for a storefront could not expect significant owner investment.

People would shop at a small storefront with very limited offerings.

People want (and expect) the Co-op to have a viable business right now that grows into something larger and, did not expect a food co-op in Silverton to successfully follow an FCI model of growing membership and then launching a full grocery store from owner capital. These respondents did not expect anyone to invest money in an idea; they would only invest in something that already existed (a business that they patronized) and wanted to grow to something larger.
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People want a tangible benefit to their membership, as in a place to shop for local food, more often than once a week, at the farmer's market.