Co-op’s Demise
A Great Loss

The Randolph Co-op has reached its final days. 

Upon receiving a text message about the closing, my initial reaction was denial. Despite the financial troubles the Co-op was experiencing, I believed it would pull through, as it usually did, and execute its fresh business plan that would hopefully benefit the people of the community and the Co-op itself.

While the Co-op has accumulated an enormous debt, there is still a market for healthy food and products in Randolph. This is not a sweeping general statement and is only emphasized by the fact that Shaw’s, a grocery chain store, began providing natural and organic products. In the empty space the Co-op leaves, several questions are boiling to the surface:

"What will happen to the employees?"

"What will spring up in the Co-op’s place?"

"Will Hunger Mountain move in?"

"Have all the options truly been exhausted?"

Now many people might argue that I and the community can attend to our grocery needs at the nearby Shaw’s grocery store. They may claim it is a simple process and the closure of the Co-op will be beneficial to the community at large.

Except that our money will be invested into a corporation that has no understanding of our community. A community shops at the Co-op so that the money stays within the community. It is a cycle that is beneficial to us all with the exception of the corporate bourgeoisie.

It isn’t just about the groceries or the product selection or even the convenient location. When you stepped into the Co-op you weren’t treated like a consumer, you were treated as a member of the community where you could sample the produce of your fellow members. It acted as a cultural and social hub, a farmers market, a trinket store and a common center of the community.

If I step into Shaw’s, I am greeted by air-conditioning, shelves and obligatory smiles and greetings. I become a vehicle for market commodity. It offers nothing of what the Co-op offered me and the Randolph community.

The Co-op provided us all with a new outlook on how we shopped and lived our daily lives. It existed in the community for the community, encouraged us all to eat well and gave us, the consumers, an opportunity to shed the labels and keep our hard earned cash in circulation. Can the CEO of Shaw’s provide us all with that experience?

The signs were there that marked the Co-op’s closure, dwindling shelves and restricted wares. Yet, the entire process has been extremely sudden. It’s almost as if the Co-op is silently fading away without enough warning for those who loved it to try and help, or at least properly say goodbye.

The closing of the Co-op may seem to be a small-time event in a smaller community, but it’s the small communities that make up the best cooperatives. The Randolph Co-op was more than a place to buy groceries; it was a part of the community. I challenge any corporate grocery store to live up to that ideal.

Melissa Shekinah

Randolph