Pullman residents want locally owned co-op, city officials say

Moscow Food Co-op employees say several legal and financial hurdles could delay the board's goals to eventually expand across state lines and build a location in Pullman, but some are questioning whether Pullman residents actually want an extension of the Moscow Food Co-op in their town in the first place.

Pullman City Councilman Nathan Weller, who is also a member of a group of about 15 Pullman residents and business owners who have been meeting informally to discuss the possibility of incorporating a food cooperative in the downtown area, said a majority of Pullman residents do want a locally-owned co-op, though he said many want to be able to collaborate with the Moscow Co-op and have an amicable relationship.

"I don't think there's any feelings of animosity," Weller said. "I think it's just one of those things that, you know, Moscow has waited, and I think they've been very interested in Pullman for a while, but Pullman people are very interested in having a food co-op, period, and we feel that we can do it alone."

A survey propagated by the Pullman Chamber of Commerce asks residents what they would like out of a potential Pullman co-op. More than 500 initial results indicate residents want a locally owned co-op, said Marie Dymkoski, director of the Pullman Chamber of Commerce.

"In my opinion, it'd be nice to keep some of our dollars in Washington rather than consistently losing our money across the border to Idaho," Dymkoski said.

Moscow Food Co-op employees are still looking to build a location in Pullman, but they face several difficulties. Though the store recently underwent a recommended three-year long audit in the quest to expand, the 45-year-old Moscow Food Co-op faced an unexpected hurdle when it saw its first sales decline in 10 years toward the end of 2016, Co-op General Manager Melinda Schab said. While the co-op came out in the black in 2017, it took a full year from the fourth quarter of 2016 to see an incline in sales again, Schab said.

Joe Gilmore, director of infrastructure for the co-op, said the sales decline was not all doom and gloom, but it was an unexpected hiccup in the co-op's plans to expand business to Pullman in the coming years.

"Obviously, you can't expand if you don't take care of your mothership, so to speak," Schab said, adding the best way to help stabilize the Moscow location is for members of the community to come and shop.

The co-op will need to see at least four quarters of positive sales growth before the board can begin seriously looking for property again, Schab said, but finding an ideal location will be a another issue.

Schab said some feel passionately about a future co-op being located in downtown Pullman, but the Moscow co-op's No. 1 complaint from customers is a lack of parking, Schab said. Building a location away from the downtown core could mean more parking for customers.

Still, it could be months before the board begins considering a location, as the co-op also faces legal hurdles in its plan to expand across state borders.

Co-ops are community-owned businesses that sell shares and allow individuals to become co-owners. About 27 percent of the Moscow Food Co-op's owners come from Pullman, Schab said.

"We're like the ultimate community-owned business," Schab said. "We're owned by 8,000 people in your community. It doesn't get much better than that."

One way co-ops develop expansions is by taking loans from their membership, but Schab said the co-op cannot take loans from across state lines without having a business there already.

Schab said she feels for people in Pullman who are frustrated with how long it has taken the co-op to expand to Pullman, but no one is more frustrated than her, she said.

"We took this feedback that people wanted us to go to Pullman, and we ran with it, and I think we grossly underestimated how unprepared we were, and it's just taken significantly longer than we anticipated," Schab said.

Taylor Nadauld can be reached at (208) 883-4630, by email to tnadauld@dnews.com and on Twitter @tnadauldarg.