proposal by the top management of Eastside Food Co-op to let it be acquired by
The Wedge Co-op in south Minneapolis. Linden Hills would also be acquired by
The Wedge in the deal. The board of EFC will be bringing the issue to a vote
of the membership in October, a two thirds vote in favor of the merger is
required for it to go forward.
Many people and neighborhood organizations came together to establish Eastside
Food Co-op in 2003 as a locally owned and controlled neighborhood business
bringing good food and economic democracy to Northeast Minneapolis. We were
successful and EFC has become an important Central Avenue asset. There are a
number of specific concerns related to the proposed expansion:
First is the basic idea that EFC was was built by Northeast residents and
neighborhood organizations as a new locally owned and managed neighborhood
business. Having this local identity and control permanently lost is
disturbing.
The timing is also strange. EFC is just now completing a huge expansion of its
store and it is financially sound. The timing is said to be much more related
to The Wedge's and Linden Hills schedules, a current EFC board member
acknowledged to me that for EFC the timing is "rough."
Another is that this whole idea was cooked up in secret by the three stores
General Managers who all reportedly "like and trust" each other. Making
permanent structural changes that result in the loss of local control all on
the basis of (temporary) personalities that get along well together is a bad
basis for a sound decision.
This is not a "consolidation" or "connection" between equals in the way that
those promoting the deal describe it. According to the Star Tribune, the Wedge
has 16,500 members and Linden Hills has 8,900 while EFC has 6,700. So after the
takeover, all EFC members together will only have about one fifth of the total
membership. Thus we will lose control of our store. And once it is lost, there
is no going back, it is lost permanently
The management is using the same vague rhetoric about "market efficiency" that
you hear when phone or internet or cable companies propose mergers. Promising
higher wages and lower costs and more "efficiency" but without any guarantees
of any of that actually happening. But bigger isn't always better--especially
if you care about concepts like having locally owned businesses where you can
have an actual stake in the store. What's next? Just one huge co-op for the
Twin Cies? And then for the whole country? Will food co-ops become like REI
(which is technically a co-op but one in which I doubt many individual members
feel a close connection). This is the direction things are headed, however, if
this ill-conceived proposal is not stopped in its tracks. Which it can be if
enough members learn about the issue and refuse to be swayed by the vague
promises of those promoting the deal and actually take the time to vote against
it in the co-op election on October 24th.
This list doesn't exactly seem very lively these days but maybe we can have
some debate on the proposal here. There is also a new Facebook group "Save
Eastside Food Co-op" https://www.facebook.com/groups/314372282232166/ as well
as a page exploring concerns about the consolidation:
https://www.facebook.com/EFC-Is-There-a-Case-for-Consolidation-1066047110097940/
EFC is also having "listening sessions" for EFC members as it struggles to
figure out a way to present the merger as something positive for its members.
Bruce Shoemaker