LEVERETT — Learning about the financial challenges facing the Leverett Village Co-op, which has become an institution in the Moore’s Corner section since opening in the early 1980s, a woman dropped into the store this week to donate $200 to help keep it in operation.
That’s the kind of generosity that Susan Lynton, president of the co-op’s board, appreciates as the store struggles to keep its doors open and finds itself $200,000 in debt, much of which is owed to vendors who provide the products to fill its shelves. The co-op is a grocery store, convenience store, package store, bakery and cafe, open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and serving both members and nonmembers.
But, because the woman’s offer didn’t solve the underlying problem — which is that not enough people are shopping at the co-op, which in 2004 became the first co-op in the state to offer beer and wine — the gift was turned down.
“We don’t want to take people’s money when we’re close to possible dissolution,” Lynton said.
Instead, Lynton said, the co-op needs more shoppers.
“We have to energize the community,” Lynton said. “This store cannot survive without the community buying. We need to get a certain amount of people shopping and eating.”
Of the 800 active members, around 700 are spending under $100 per year, or less than $2 per week, Lynton said. In turn, this causes the inventory ratio turnover, which calculates how many times in a year products are purchased by the co-op and then sold to customers, to fall well short of the 13 times turnover needed.
Because of this struggle, on Tuesday evening, at a meeting at Leverett Town Hall attended by about 100 members, residents and supporters, the board voted to move forward with dissolving the co-op, a decision that puts the business on a trajectory that could bring the co-op to an end, but might also lead to successful changes that could keep it open.
The decision to dissolve will be brought before the member owners, who will have a vote on the matter within the next six to eight weeks, Lynton said. “We have to move forward with this and we don’t want it to be a mess if dissolved,” Lynton said.
But Lynton said a parallel track features plans to save the co-op with the assistance of an “angel” investor who would help the co-op secure a needed loan for upgrades to its building, as well as finding a way out of its debt. This loan would be possible if members and shoppers put up $200 as an immediate investment, to stabilize the emergency and ensure product is available to customers, and in return they would have an equal amount of store credit to use after May 1, 2020.
In addition, current members would pledge to spend at least $25 per week over and above their current spending levels. Lynton notes this would be a sizable increase in spending for many members.
Part of the dissolution strategy, she said, also involves looking for someone to buy the building, and then have that person lease the property back to the co-op. Such a sale would cover all outstanding debt. “Our vendors would be made whole again,” Lynton said.
A less-preferred alternative is having the co-op taken over by a new owner or operator.
The co-op began as a buying club in which members saved money by getting together to buy basic foods in bulk, allowing them to save money. This mission changed after organizers branched off from an Amherst-based group in the late 1970s, first using space in Shutesbury Town Hall and then in 1982 sharing a tiny storefront across from its current site, at the corner of Rattlesnake Gutter and North Leverett roads, where the new building was ready in January 1991.
The co-op was one of the reasons Jeff Lacy and his wife, Liz, were drawn back to the region and moved to Shutesbury after living in Hawaii, becoming life members.
“We’re so attached to the place and all the friends we see,” Lacy said. “I’m pretty terrified about losing it.”
Lacy said members and the larger community can save the co-op. “We need to demonstrate we’ll do some real grocery shopping there,” he said. Many don’t want to lose another local place, he said, citing the closing of the restaurant at the Deja Brew Cafe & Pub in Wendell in 2017.
Even before moving to Shutesbury a little more than a year ago, when Lou Graham visited friends he would be a sporadic customer at the co-op, and since has tried to shop there at least on a weekly basis.
“We certainly consider the co-op for staple pickups,” Graham said,
Over the summer, the co-op’s board announced a capital campaign with a goal of raising $100,000 by the end of October and another $100,000 by April 2020 as a way to grow the co-op and to get a loan from a bank. In that message, it described the co-op as coming far.
“In 2019, we were able to begin our progressive business plan by increasing the variety of pantry goods, local meats, cheeses and produce.”
But the co-op board also revealed a situation in which the co-op “has suffered decreasing sales due to undercapitalization for over a decade. Without capital, it has been treading water all these years, and has not been able to provide consistent goods and services.”
Still, the co-op had made changes, such as being able to pour beer and wine in a renovated bistro area, creating a lunch menu for people who live and work in the area, and crafting other ideas to sustain it. These included an outdoor deck to increase the size of the dining room, serving dinner four nights a week with a renowned local chef, and launching a home delivery service for those who want or need to use it.
Lynton said one obstacle is that even members see the co-op as less significant in their lives than a few years ago, even if they don’t want it to go away. She said she hopes people from Leverett and Shutesbury, as well as Amherst, Montague, Wendell and other surrounding towns, will step forward.
“We need that down payment, but we also need that sustained investment,” Lynton said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
