Newsletters: May - June 2008
New Owner Generation
Natural Times-May/June 2008
By June Wiaz
HISTORICAL AND CURRENT OWNERSHIP AT NLM
New Leaf Market sure has come a long way since its humble origins in the mid-1970s. The store started with only 200 members and $1,000 in capital. Ownership quickly grew, and by 1989 the store relocated to its current site on Apalachee Parkway. New Leaf Market (NLM) now boasts an ownership of about 9,000 and in 2007 grossed roughly $9 million in sales.
Yet even with this growth, there’s a desire to further expand ownership. When it comes to co-op owners, you really can’t have too many.
Surprisingly perhaps, the most profound generator of new owners has been the physical expansion of the store. Sales are up, and recently NLM has gained as many as 50 new owners per month, despite the construction “motif.” People enjoy backing winners in many domains, retail food enterprises among them.
While many of the most loyal shoppers at NLM are its owners, roughly 45 percent of the store’s customers are not. Some shop at the store when convenient or when seeking specific items or types of food not found elsewhere in Tallahassee. But a significant proportion of non-owners shop at NLM frequently. Many of these customers are already familiar with NLM and are the proverbial “lowest hanging fruit” in terms of ownership recruitment.
Currently, owners of New Leaf Market receive the following benefits: discounts on classes and seminars; monthly receipt of Owner Advantage Sales; discounts for participation with local health providers and businesses; receipt of the bi-monthly newsletter, Natural Times; receipt of valuable coupon books twice a year; and the ability to write personal checks for up to $20 over the purchase total. And in years when NLM makes a profit, a percentage of that profit is returned to owners based on annual purchases. Perhaps the greatest benefit to ownership at New Leaf is the intangible one—the sense of community and comfort that owners feel when shopping at the store.
The key question is what particular benefits are the biggest attractants to the casual, unaffiliated shopper? Which benefits will convert this shopper to an owner with a vested interest in NLM’s cooperative venture? And are there perhaps other benefits that the store could offer that would attract new owners? That indeed is the central question.
