Green Sheet

Competing Locally in the Global Marketplace

In late 1995, a few people were imagining the potential of merging the interests of the then-$185-dollars-a-day church basement King Avenue Food Cooperative and the young and emerging non-profit environmental education organization Simply Living. As 1995 turned to 1996 and the months slid by, it became clear that the idea was more than an idealistic pipe dream and concrete steps were taken through the year to further that goal and strengthen the resolve to make it a reality.

It was on New Year's Eve, 1997, that the keys to the soon-to-be Clintonville Community Market were turned over to the new tenants, and an idea that had started with two, three, and four had become a dream of 80, 90, and 100. With endless hours of work and endless details to implement, the trying efforts of this small group gave birth to the Clintonville Community Market in June of 1997.

The opening day was replete with a devastating summer thunderstorm, the main road to the market blocked by a fallen tree, a ten-hour electrical outage, and a candlelight performance that captivated the attendees of the Grand Opening event.

The market was born. The baby was birthed that would try us to the very core of our beings and also bring greater joy and satisfaction than we could have imagined. I believe very few of us even vaguely understood that we were entering the natural foods grocery business. It was more an effort to create a community of relationship by design than an intention to enter into business. I distinctly remember realizing that, in spite of all the hard work and difficult trials to reach the point of opening the store, the real work had only just begun.

My instincts were correct, and years down the road, though much has been accomplished, I am sure our Board of Directors, our 30-member staff, and our 827 member owners would heartily agree that the real work has only just begun. The baby is now nearly eight years old—young enough to be child-like, yet old enough to know better—and in today's world, the child needs to be wise enough to survive.

So too the market still has its fresh and innocent feel for many, along with a much more business-savvy core of participants who recognize the formidable challenges they face to survive as an organization and a grocery in a very competitive and aggressive industry.

Remembering a quote emphasized by one of our early volunteers who had suffered a devastating physical injury in his life, our child-like yet maturing business community could be well advised that "no one ever said it would be easy." As this eight year old peeks into and experiences the world that it truly exists in, the realization and awareness begins to take shape that there are many others out there and that most of them are much, much bigger.

This is not a theoretical consideration; it is a hard reality that is just as jarring as a young child squaring off against a challenging adversary, whether neighbor, brother, playmate, or—in the case of our largest competitor—a well trained soldier. It's raw and it's real: It's "business." And excuses, explanations, and concerned regret are merely a formality of the post script that lend to the psychological acceptance of the true reality we make and experience.

Sixty years ago your business competitors were your neighbors. Today our business competitors are our neighbors and, in addition, aggregations of corporate wealth, intelligence, technology, and resources that transcend all boundaries one can imagine. We are obviously not Wild Oats, Whole Foods, Giant Eagle, or Kroger. However, we would be foolish not to respect their success and their competitive capacity, along with all of our other neighbors who sell natural and organic foods in the Central Ohio area. It is my sense that surviving in this very competitive industry will become even more challenging in the near future. And it is with this realization that I pose these questions to you and share my perspectives.

By retaining the right and responsibilities of ownership, we educate ourselves in a manner that can define our future. We lay claim to the real obligations of business development and community evolvement—not "they" and "those," but "I" and "we." The very first step toward self-actualization is about self-responsibility. No more the outside observer with many complaints and with all the answers, each of us becomes the participant, the problem solver, the actualizer, and the doer.

This is what the Clintonville Community Market has become—a cooperative community-owned natural foods retail grocery. Help us take the Clintonville Community Market onto the next level. Become invested by investing your dollars. Become an owner by owning responsibility for your community market. Become a part of community by making your community of value the place where you shop. Become a part of your cooperative by cooperating with others to ensure the market's survivability and encouragement of the values of Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability. Become a part of your locally owned natural foods community grocery. We are the Little Community Market With The Great Big Natural Product Selection. We want you to join us in keeping our local efforts and our local voice strong.

Edward Bain is the general manager and a corporate trustee of the Clintonville Community Market, d.b.a. the Calumet Natural Foods Cooperative. He is a native of Columbus, Ohio, and the father of two children, Mingo and Blue, as well as a descendent of Irish and Italian parents who were both lifetime residents of Columbus.