The TPSS Board of Representatives is planning to add a second cooperative grocery store to our current operations on Ethan Allen Avenue in Takoma Park.

Frequently Asked Questions & Answers
Opening a second store is the best way to sustain our co-op’s long-term financial health and grow our community impact. Spreading cooperative values is a great reason to expand, but the main driver is financial: costs are rising faster than we can increase sales in our current store, as explained below, and two stores will be more sustainable than one.
We live in a time of corporate consolidation across our food system, where large companies increasingly use their market power to drive down wages, pressure producers, and offer consumers limited local choices while raising prices, all in the name of maximizing returns for distant shareholders. Co-ops like TPSS offer a different way of doing business. Created by and for our community, we exist to support a more just and resilient food system by supporting local farmers and producers, providing access to healthy, organic foods, and being an excellent employer. TPSS is ready to extend the benefits of the co-operative model to a wider community by expanding to a second location.
We have long felt the limitations posed by our single, small store and have passed the point where grocery stores typically seek to expand. We have a mature store with sales per square foot exceeding $2,300, far above the industry average of about $500 and even the $1,500 level that usually signals the need for growth. With rising costs for labor, utilities, and rent, our revenue must also rise. Raising prices alone would make us less competitive and burden our community. Continuing to push more sales through the existing space would lead to increased congestion in the aisles and longer checkout lines, ultimately harming the shopping experience and limiting future sales. Because we cannot increase the size of our current sales floor (see below), opening a second store is the only realistic way to grow revenue fast enough to keep pace with rising expenses.
- June 2022 - Market study completed on current store trade area
- Summer/Fall 2024 - TPSS current store remodel project
- 2024/2025 - Board Expansion Committee studies expansion risks and opportunities
- August 2024 - Board hires expansion consultant Jeanie Wells
- June 2025 - Market study to determine feasible sites in the region
- September 2025 - TPSS signs a Phase 1 contract with the National Cooperative Grocers (NCG) for expansion planning support
- September 2025 - Board resolution authorizing GM to move to next phase of expansion planning
- January 2026 - Member engagement event with Jon Steinman
- February 2026 - Financial Pro Forma
- Coming Soon - Capital campaign
- Fall 2026 - Site selection begins, etc.
- No negative effects on the current store and service to our members and shoppers
- A strong financial pro forma that gives us high confidence in the investment
- The right location in a community that welcomes the unique value proposition of a TPSS Co-op and has the potential to support the new store through sustained patronage
- Increases the efficiency of operations, such as backstock storage and deliveries.
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The Co-op operated the Grubb Road location in Silver Spring from 2001 to 2013. In 2025, the Board and General Manager conducted a careful and comprehensive review of the store’s history to understand why it closed and identify lessons for the future. This review included an in-depth analysis of financial statements to evaluate both the store’s performance and its impact on the Co-op’s overall financial health, along with interviews with board members who served at the time to better understand the operational and governance factors that contributed to the closure.
Based on this investigation, we concluded that the Grubb Road store struggled primarily due to insufficient market analysis, inadequate marketing, and weak cost controls, particularly around labor. From its inception, the store consistently lost money, posting only 51 months of profit compared to 89 months of losses over its history. The Co-op was able to sustain those losses for 13 years only because of the strong financial performance of the Takoma Park store, which provided the ability to pursue improvement efforts. Despite years of work and the involvement of outside expertise, the Grubb Road location ultimately did not achieve sustainable profitability.
Lessons from the Grubb Road experience include the importance of rigorous market analysis, effective marketing, disciplined cost control, and long-term business planning. Today's TPSS benefits from decades of professional grocery management, and a cooperative grocery sector which now has a much greater degree of external expertise and supports for projects like this. We are investing in that external expertise and support. We have engaged Jeanie Wells, a nationally recognized retail grocery consultant with more than 25 years of experience in operations, leadership development, and cooperative governance. We are also working closely with the National Co+op Grocers, which is supporting us with financial feasibility analysis, site selection, and design feasibility.
Another critical lesson learned by the Grubb Road closure is the importance of clear, timely communication with members around decisions of this magnitude. Member feedback from that time indicated that many members were very supportive of the Grubb Road store and were surprised by the closure.
We are committed to soliciting member feedback as we continue with this second store expansion project. The first step in this process occurred in January 2026, when we hosted Jon Steinman, an inspiring leader in the co-op movement. He gave a public presentation about the cooperative difference, facilitated a discussion among co-op member-owners about their vision and hopes for a second store, and led a full staff training about the cooperative grocery business.
